


The Gloaming

by Pryotra



Series: The Gloaming Trilogy [1]
Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types
Genre: ALL THE PLOT, Bella does stuff, Bella is not stupid, Bella plays Nancy Drew, Canon Rewrite, Edward is suspicious, F/M, Gen, Human Bella, Magic Exists, Slight tweaks to character, Slow Burn, really slow burn, urban fantasy elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-01
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2018-05-04 10:01:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 39,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5330015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pryotra/pseuds/Pryotra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Returning to live in the city of Forks, Bella Swan's attempts to build a new life with her father are interrupted by a series of bizarre murders around the town. Murders that she is sure are linked back to the mysterious Cullens who only recently appeared. Along with her old friend Jacob, Bella starts to investigate the murders. But, as accidents around her increase and strange happenings come to light, Bella starts to fear that rather than being an innocent bystander in the middle of things, she's the next victim of a relentless killer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Return

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, hello
> 
> So, I'm trash that can't criticize something without playing with it. As such, my mission, and I choose to accept it, is to see if I can take this series, which I really think has good ideas, but an execution I’m not fond of, and see if I can work with it. This is a little inspired at points by Das Mervin’s The Blue Hour, but I’m going to try to keep as close to canon as I can while still improving on it.
> 
> Hopefully, even a reader who actively likes Twilight could possibly enjoy this as well. I'm attempting not to engage in rampant bashing.
> 
> What does that mean? Certain elements of backstories are going to be changed, some characters aren’t really going to exist, others are going to be more in the forefront. I’m a little more of a fan of slow burn romances, so both Bella and Edward are going to have to be getting over their separate issues before they actually get together. You’ll see the individual changes later.
> 
> I don’t own Twilight, if I did, it would look more like this.  
> 
> **May you live in interesting times.**
> 
> **-The Chinese Curse**

Winter in Phoenix was one of the times that Bella Swan liked the best. While the summers were, admittedly, so hot that it was hard not to want to just sit inside the house and huddle around the air conditioner, Phoenix winters were different. You could sit outside, go to shops, and enjoy the snow from a nice safe distance on the mountains. Then the desert, flat and brown as it was, seemed a little livelier without the constant sun.

It was completely different than winter in Washington. Grant it, Bella had never been in Forks during the winter. Even when she had gone up to see her father there, before her mother had fussed about the ‘dreary place’ and insisted that her father visit her in California, she’d only seen Forks in the summer. Some part of her thought dully that it didn’t look all that different in the winter. Other than a little grayer.

She remembered the rain, and how cold it had been, even in the summer. Now, that was essentially what she was going to be dealing with for the next year or so. Still, it was her decision.

It was obvious what was going to happen when Renee brought Phil home for the first time. Her mother never brought her boyfriends home. Oh, she would gossip to Bella about them, but somehow, the fact that Phil was the only one of them who Bella had ever seen as he was someone real. At first, Bella hadn’t really believed it. She’d seen her mother’s phases before, and there was no reason to believe that Phil wasn’t one of them. Then came the marriage, and then, Phil was on the road again, and Renee was, while pretending that it didn’t bother her, devastated.

Bella was used to being the one who ended up helping to solve Renee’s problems. Not being the problem herself. The fact was that Renee wanted to be with her husband, and the only reason that she wasn’t was because of Bella. If Bella wasn’t there…

What else was there to do?

Bella clutched her bag harder to herself. The plane would be landing soon, and she wanted to be ready. Her father would be waiting to pick her up and take her to the place she’d call home for the next year. Half of that being ready was preparing a big smile for Charlie.

He didn’t deserve to suffer just because she was having second thoughts. He’d been nothing but happy to have her there, and even though she didn’t like Forks. She didn’t like the rain; she didn’t like how nothing changed; and she didn’t like the fact that the only interesting shops were in Port Angeles which you couldn’t get to without a car.

She wasn’t going to think about it.

“So, Steve, what do you think about the murder upstate?”

The sudden question broke Bella out of her thoughts. Two men in the rows in front of her were talking softly. The plane was pretty small, and it didn’t have many people who were going to Port Angeles. (Forks was too small, and too isolated, to have an airport nearby.)

“What?”

“It’s got the police freaked. Some hikers went missing for like…fifteen minutes, when their friend found them, they looked like some wild animal had gotten to them. They can’t identify it.”

“Geez, Fred, can’t we talk about something else?”

“But that’s not all, they say that they looked like they had been drained of all blood!”

“…Fred, stop waving your hands like that. You look like you’re trying to tell a campfire story or something. The attendant's going to come.”

“You wouldn’t mind that, would you?”

“S-shut up!”

Bella looked around, trying to block out the conversation from her mind. The last thing that she wanted was to think about that. Particularly after how difficult it had been to get her mother to agree with this move.

Renee had been uncomfortable enough with her going to live with Charlie. At first, when Bella had announced the idea in September, Renee had objected about how little Bella liked the rain, but then the days had worn on, and Renee’s talk started getting less negative. Conversation slowly moved to how Charlie would love to have her there, and how it would only be a little while, since Phil was going to eventually get into the big leagues, and maybe they would be able to have a nice house in Florida that she’d been looking at… And how, really it would be fun. Meeting new people and trying new things.

Even though little in Forks was really ‘new’.

The worst realization was just how much of her things were just things that Renee had bought her. The magazines that she never read, the make-up she rarely wore, and fluffy, lacy things that were just like Renee’s. Most of those shirts weren’t really appropriate for Washington weather, so Bella had packed the things that could stand the cold, and said that they could keep the rest, and let it wait for her when she came back.

Renee had liked that, and she’d chatted about how this would be like a Christmas vacation. Only…after Christmas.

A bump caused Bella to look out the window. They were starting to descend. She’d forgotten just how _green_ everything was below the clouds. She hated to sound immature, even in her own head, but childish or not, the amount of trees, and the lack of open space was a little claustrophobic when she was younger. She was being silly, Bella told herself. She’d lived in a huge city with hemmed in buildings and a neighborhood with postage stamp sized lots where she couldn’t so much as go out and get the paper without at least ten people being able to see her without needing to bother to step outside.

Compared to that, at least she’d get a little privacy.

Yes, that was how she was going to look at this. She’d decided; she wasn’t going to whine; and she was certainly not going to make Charlie miserable.

Speaking of Charlie… The captain announced their landing, and Bella braced herself.

_Welcome to the first day of the next two years, Bella._

Because, after all, she knew perfectly well that she wasn’t going to Florida.

No. She wasn’t going to think about that.

Carefully, she stepped out of the plane, making sure to note the uneven point where the ramp ended. She refused to let her first steps be ones where she stumbled. Even since eighth grade, when her mother had signed her up for the school soccer team, and Bella had gotten a ball to the face, she’d seemed to have problems with tripping.

She made her way through the airport, which was smaller than Phoenix’s but still enough for her to get lost once in, looking for the familiar face of her father.

“Bella!” someone called, and she stopped.

A mustached man that she didn’t recognize at first was waving to her. For a moment, she still was confused, but then she gave a relieved smile, and summoning a touch of the bright persona that she tended to have around, Renee, went to greet her father.

“C-Dad,” she said, “You grew a mustache!”

Charlie didn’t like it when she called him by his first name. She was going to have to be careful of that. Renee had always hated it when she called her ‘mom’ and said that it made her feel old, so it had turned into a habit with Bella.

Charlie smiled but looked a little embarrassed.

“You think it’s too much?” he asked. “You didn’t even recognize me.”

“No,” she laughed. “It looks great.”

And her laughter was real.

“How’s your mother?” Charlie asked, leading her towards the pick-up.  

It was the ritual. When she saw him, every year, he asked about Renee.

“She’s doing fine. She’s really happy with Phil, and they were talking about getting a place in Florida last I heard. Maybe Phil will hit the big leagues,” Bella shrugged.

She kind of doubted it, statistically speaking.

“Good to know that she’s found someone who makes her happy,” Charlie said, there was a softness to it that Bella always hated. She always wanted to tell him not to worry about her anymore. Particularly not that Renee had decided to ride off into the sunset with a man who was closer to Bella’s age than her own, but she controlled herself, and Charlie shook himself out of whatever he had been thinking. “Anyway, let’s pick up your luggage and head back.”

Bella nodded. The nice thing about her and Charlie is that they matched one another’s temperaments enough so that both were perfectly happy to sit in a car for a long drive in companionable silence.

It was the biggest way that anyone could tell that they were related. In appearance Bella more strongly resembled Renee. Both of them had the same brown hair and eyes, though hers was straighter. Only Renee’s skin could be called ‘ivory’ while Bella’s would have been better called ‘pasty’, and while Renee was tall and slender, Bella was shorter and well…a little bottom heavy.

“I didn’t bring the cruiser, so I think that they’ll be room for everything,” Charlie said.

“Heh, well, it is a pain when I have to sit in the back.”

It was illegal for her, being that she wasn’t a police officer or a ride along, to be in the front. The drives in Charlie’s cruiser had always been the closest that Bella ever wanted to be to getting arrested. Charlie even had to open the doors for her.

They didn’t talk much more as Bella got her luggage and they headed for the car. This was usual too. It was hard to think of anything to say after a year apart. Usually, when they saw one another in California, it had only been about the third or fourth day when they really started to have anything to talk about.

“You’ll probably be coming to Port Angeles a lot,” Charlie broke the silence. “I know that there’s not much in Forks, but there’s a mall here, and some bookstore. There are even a few little ones like the one in San Diego that you spent so much time in.”

“You looked?” Bella knew that the surprise was leaking into her voice, and she didn’t care.

Charlie looked a little embarrassed but kept his eye on the road.

“There was a little time to kill while I waited for your flight.”

Still. The traitorous thought that Renee wouldn’t have done that flitted through her mind, but she shoved it down. Renee didn’t need to do anything for her.

“I hope we’ll be able to go down there on some weekends,” Bella said, trying to make herself look even slightly less like the little ninny that she felt like she was being.

Charlie didn’t answer, but he was smiling. She hoped that that was a good sign. Bella didn’t read much. There wasn’t all that much time, but she enjoyed it when she had it. Unfortunately, when it wasn’t school, Renee usually wanted Bella to do something with her. Like, lately, go to Phil’s games. The hotdogs had been good, but she’d spent more time worrying if she was going to get hit in the head with a baseball than enjoying the show.

Charlie wasn’t much for that kind of thing, so this might be his way to giving her something to do. Still, she appreciated it.

* * *

 

They drove in silence until there was a sudden rush of motion, and commerce center and a familiar green sign came into view. It almost blended into the rest of the environment around it, and looked like it had probably been constructed in the seventies. On one side there was a picture of what looked like a large truck, driving across a snowy, mountainous landscape past a pine tree. Beneath the truck, cracks, or small rivers all united to form a larger body with a single white fish. Next to the picture, large, white letters jetted out from it.

_The City of Forks Welcomes You_

Maybe she was biased, but ‘city’ was a little generous for a town with a population of thirty-three hundred people. She’d looked. As pathetic as that was. Studying impulsively and categorizing information were kind of normal for her. She had to be organized. She usually had to know everything.

Something moved in the bushes past the sign, and Bella squinted to get a good look at it. Maybe it was a deer or something. She didn’t usually see a lot of wildlife.

“Are there lots of animals here?” she asked, breaking the silence.

“Yeah,” Charlie said. “Billy and I used to go hunting, but that was before he ended up in a wheelchair.”

“Billy’s in a wheelchair??” Bella asked, turning to look at him. “What happened?”

Billy Black was Charlie’s old friend from the Quileute reservation in La Push. Every year that she’d been in Forks before this, she’d seen him and his family. She’d usually ended up playing with his son Jacob, since Rachel and Rebecca considered themselves far to ‘mature’ to hang around them.

“Oh, it was his diabetes,” Charlie said, looking ahead, but he didn’t seem to be seeing it. “He’s in a wheelchair now. We mostly just end up fishing these days. But, anyways, there’s plenty of things living here. I expect you’ll grow to hate the deer if you try planting anything.”

“I’m really sorry to hear about Billy,” Bella said. “…maybe we’ll visit?”

She wasn’t sure what that visit would imply, only that she _should_ visit.

Charlie smiled again, but he didn’t answer as the car pulled through the town.

Forks didn’t look all that different from how she remembered it. Particularly with the rain. A lot of Forks was constructed along Forks Ave, but once he got further in, the main street moved into smaller suburbs and branching streets. If she ignored the trees and the lack of chain restaurants, it wasn’t all that different from Phoenix. Still the fact that they were the same stores, the same restaurants, and even the same weather was disheartening.

Bella huffed and shook her head. What was she expecting? And _she’d_ agreed to do this after all.

“That’s where you’re going to be going to school,” Charlie said, pointing to a small road that turned sharply away from them.

She couldn’t see Forks High, but the thought of it made her blanch slightly. She wasn’t looking forwards to that.

It didn’t take too long for Charlie to pull into one of the many side streets to a familiar small two story white house. It looked just the same as when she was a child. Charlie had never repainted what her mother had done and hadn’t added much in the way of flowers, but that was probably more because he was busy. Still, it seemed…cozier than it had when she was there last.  

Maybe it was just the fact that she was going to be living there now. Maybe it was because she was finally going to be out of the rain.

Charlie already had her bags when she’d stepped out. She shivered a little bit as the wind hit her, even though she was wearing one of her heavier coats (she needed a new one), and followed her father into her new home. One look around told her that, like the outside of the house, Charlie hadn’t changed anything. The walls were the same colors that Renee had painted, the curtains were what she had chosen. The only difference was that the old TV that she’d seen in the summers had been replaced.

Otherwise, the house felt like it was silently waiting for Renee to come back, bring along with her Baby Bella, so that they could start out the promise of a life that had never happened.

The worst part was the wedding picture on the mantle in the living room. He and Renee stood, smiling in a small church. Charlie looking young and shy and a little shocked by his own luck. Renee looked pretty and innocent and excited for all the possibilities that the future was holding for her. Her hair was dyed blonde in that picture.

The marriage didn’t even last a year, but Charlie kept that picture up. Just like he still wore the wedding ring.

It was surrounded by what she could only call the Shelf of Bella. She blinked and stepped back in surprise. Every single school picture ever taken of her, including a particularly hideous one when she was in braces and her hair looked like a frizz ball, graced the mantel around the picture. For a moment, she paused, then she turned back to talk to Charlie, but he was already going up the stairs.

“I’ve got a surprise for you,” he said, as Bella followed, only pausing once to look back at all the Bellas smiling awkwardly back at her. Renee hadn’t ever kept one picture of her. Bella had never overly cared. She hated pictures of herself. She was always too fat, too plain, and her smile was wrong. She’d never thought that Renee had been sending them to Charlie. It felt…weird, so she pushed it away from her and followed her father.

The upstairs was small, with only two bedrooms and a shared bathroom between them. When she was younger, she’d slept in her babyroom. It had been a small, pleasant room in its way, with blue walls, a little white bed, and lacy curtains that were probably Renee’s choice. Charlie was leading her back into that room now. She wondered if, it to, was going to be waiting for the Bella that could have been, but the moment that Charlie opened the door, she realized that she was wrong.

Charlie had painted the old blue walls a soft yellow, and while the lace was there still, it had been freshly cleaned. Where the small twin had been, there was a comfortable looking double bed with a quilt laid across it. In one corner was a small, white desk with a light and (she almost giggled) a cactus sitting on it. Across from it was a white bookshelf, empty and waiting for her, with a white, wicker chair by the window for her to read. A floor lamp stood by the bed, again white with a yellow shade. The whole thing seemed like a bright little ray of sunshine in this house. It was new, vibrant.

Maybe it wasn’t the biggest gesture in the world, but she knew how hard a police chief worked, and…

“I wasn’t sure what kind of bedspread that you’d like,” Charlie said, looking away. “If you want a different one…”

“Dad, this…this looks amazing,” she said, turning to him, a lightness in her stomach that hadn’t been there a little while ago. “I love it.”

Charlie seemed to slowly relax, and a smile spread across his face. He…really wanted her there…didn’t he?

Before she could fully digest that thought, there was a sudden honking car horn outside in the yard, and Charlie’s smile got a little mysterious.

“Well, that should be the other part of your welcome present,” he said.

“There’s more?”

This was plenty.

Charlie didn’t respond, but rather headed downstairs. Bella hesitated again. She didn’t know how to respond to this. She…

The horn honked again, and she turned away from the gift to head downstairs. Charlie was waiting for her, with the door open facing the yard. The horn was coming from a large red pick-up that was parked in the drive way. A young man with reddish skin was honking on the horn as loud as he could, grinning. He waved at her from the car and honked again. He was about her age, maybe a little younger. His long hair was tied back into a ponytail, and while there was something familiar about him, for a moment, she had trouble placing him.

“Ja-”

“Enough already,” the door to the smaller, tan car hooked up behind the trunk opened and the man inside opened the door. “They hear you. Along with any of the neighbors who aren’t deaf yet!”

The boy just grinned, opened the door, and jumped out himself. On his feet, he was a good deal taller than Bella, though that wasn’t much of a feat. Bella had always been short.

“Jacob, good to see you,” Charlie smiled. “This is Bella. Bella, this is Jacob Black, and that is your welcome to Forks present.”

Bella froze, eyes moving from Jacob to the truck. She hadn’t really paid too much attention to it, other than registering that it was large, it was a truck, and it was older. It also looked like it was about ready to total anything that happened to get in its way. She didn’t know much about cars, but her mother had had a classic car phase for about a week, and she’d mentioned how good the old Chevys were.

She’d been thinking about getting a car, probably an old beater given the amount of money that she had saved up, but this…

“Really?” she asked, looking around from between them, and she’d immediate stepped up, looking at the thing.

“Yup,” Jacob said, grinning. “I’ve been keeping her going for the last couple years, so if you need help, just call. The engine’s a little loud, just to tell you, but that’s normal.”

“I’ll remember that…” she said, stepping up so she could sit in the driver’s seat. It felt like a tank.

Not that that was a bad thing. Given her luck, her first car being a tank was probably a very, very good thing.

“See,” Billy Black said, as Charlie helped him into his wheelchair. “I told you she’d like it. What teenager doesn’t want a car?”

“I want a bike!” Jacob piped up.

“No.”

Bella laughed a little, looking to her father.

“This is so great,” she said. “Really. I love it.”

She was blushing, the way that she tended to do when she didn’t know what to say or do, but she wanted to say it. Charlie was trying so hard to make her feel welcome there. She opened her mouth to say more, but Billy was talking.

“Charlie, I hate to interrupt your daughter’s homecoming but…have you heard anything more about what happened up state?”

Maybe it was better that way. She wasn’t sure. Bella wasn’t used to being the center of attention like this.

“Nice to see you again,” Jacob said, cutting into her thoughts.

Bella almost jumped, but looked over, smiling and trying not to look like she was an idiot.

“It’s been forever,” Bella nodded. “How are your sisters?”

The last time she’d seen Jacob was when she was thirteen and he was eleven. They’d tried to write, but Jacob didn’t have the patience, and Bella didn’t have the stories. It was funny, looking back to those summers. This awkwardness didn’t exist then.

“College, if that's a status,” Jacob said. “All I really hear from them is how hard it is. They left about a week ago, it’s too bad, they would have loved to see you again.”

Bella smirked, jumping down from the car. She stopped as she noticed Jacob’s grin.

“What?” she asked.

“You haven’t grown at all,” he grinned.

“Well, excuse me for not turning into a mountain!” Bella said in mock annoyance, but he was still grinning. “Are you guys sure about this car? It seems so nice, and…it would be my first and…”

Bella had terrible luck.

“Oh, yeah, absolutely. It’s been Dad’s for…ever…but he’s not really interested in it anymore. Honestly, I’m just glad that this baby isn’t getting scrapped. It’s a great car!”

She paused, looking around her.

“It looks like I’ve never left,” she said softly.

“Yeah. Those were pretty good times. Remember when we tried to find Daskiya’s house?” Jacob asked.

It had been the last summer that she’d seen Jacob. They hadn’t been all that close, but there were times when the other two boys that he had played with weren’t there, and Charlie and Billy seemed to plan it that way.

“Yeah, we ended up lost and rained on,” Bella shook her head. “You were furious that we didn’t find anything. You’d even insisted that we paint ourselves for the occasion.”

Jacob groaned.

“I was hoping you forgot that,” he said.

Bella smiled. “I have a distinct memory of your saying that we both needed warpaint for the occasion, but all we had was Rachel’s make-up.”

The memory was quickly coming back. Bella hadn’t really been very enthusiastic, but she’d gone along with it, attempting to make himself up into the more attractive looking warrior to ever hunt monsters, while Jacob had ended up making a lipstick stripe along his nose.

“Do me a favor and never tell Quil or Embry about that. Still, it was kind of fun. Particularly when we accidentally found the cliffs.”

Bella smiled at the memory. They’d been so lost that it hadn’t been funny. It had only been sheer luck that Harry Clearwater had been driving by in time to see the two confused looking children wandering around, with running make-up. That had led to an uncomfortable ride back, as well as Renee’s banning Bella from being allowed to come back.

“Those cliffs were really amazing. I kind of wish we’d found them when we weren’t being rained on though,” Bella said. The realization came that there was no reason why she _shouldn’t_ see the cliffs and La Push. After all, she lived here now, and her father had just made sure that she had the means to get around…

He hadn’t wanted her to be bored.

Bella glanced over at Charlie, who was talking quietly to Billy. There had to be something that she could do…

“Hey, if you’re ever in La Push, we sometimes go cliff diving over there. It’s great, you should try it one day!” Jacob said.

“No!” Charlie called. “Bella is not going cliff diving without supervision!”

“You shouldn’t be doing it either!” Billy growled.

Jacob laughed.

Bella wrapped her arms around herself, watching, but she was smiling, she realized, and not because she felt that she needed to.

She needed to do…something…

* * *

 

Billy and Jacob ended up staying for the evening. Charlie looked a little unsure of if Bella was going to be alright with it, at first, but honestly, Bella was more than happy to have people there. For one thing, it was nice to catch up with the few people that she could actually remember from Forks, and for another, it was a nice distraction from the thing that was really nagging at her: school

“So, Jacob, you’re in highschool now, right?” Bella asked, after dinner when they had ended up sitting in front of the fireplace. Bella was still avoiding the made gazes of her pictured selves.

“Yeah,” Jacob said, “Freshman.”

“So, I guess that means that we’ll be seeing one another. 

A slight hope was starting to appear in Bella’s mind. At least she might have _someone_ that she could sit with.

“Er…no…” Jacob said. “I’m going to the Tribal School.”

“Oh…” Bella said. Well, there went that.

“But we can still meet up,” Jacob said. “Quil and Embry would glad to have someone else to play games with. Quil particularly. If he flirts too much with you, smack him.”

Bella fixed a smile on her face and nodded. While that did make her feel that at least she might have someone her age to talk with, it didn’t stop the thing that was bothering her.

She didn’t want to admit it, but the idea of going to a new school worried her. It wasn’t that she was nervous about making friends. She hadn’t had any friends in Phoenix, and she didn’t think that she’d have any in Forks. It was the simple fact that, while in Phoenix, she was just another face in a very large crowd. People came and went all the time as families moved. Here, the kids had likely all grown up together. Cliques would be well established.

And while it was one thing to be the outlier in a huge population, it was something else to be one in a place like this.

But she wasn’t going to feel sorry for herself, and she certainly wasn’t going to be the mood killer in a party meant for her.

“By the way,” Jacob asked. “What’s all this junk about a murder?”

“I heard about that on the plane here. Something happened upstate?” Bella asked. It was coming up so often, that she was starting to wonder.

Charlie sighed, leaning forward so that his elbow were on his knees.

“It’s making a lot of people nervous. This isn’t the first time that there have been some strange things happening in the woods, but the fact that it happened so fast is making people nervous. Three hikers went out, apparently looking for Bigfoot. They split up briefly to set up a camera before returning to a campsite, but then, when they didn’t come back out, their friend got nervous and went looking for them, camera in hand. They found the two bodies. It looked like something attacked them, going for the throat, but whatever it was, happened fast and without a sound.”

“The ugly thing is that when they did an autopsy, the bite makes were made by a person,” Charlie shook his head. “There’s a hunt going on for the killer, but so far, no one’s found anything. Police in towns like this are being asked to keep an eye out. They might have already left.”

“Creepy…” Jacob muttered.

Billy didn’t say anything. He was staring into the fire, his eyes reflecting the odd light. He looked...pensive…as if he was remembering something.

“Well, let’s hope that the nut gets found,” Billy said.

Bella nodded. The whole thing was creepy. She supposed though, that an area without the quantity of murders that Phoenix had would need to make up that with quality. Fun times.

“Well, on that happy note,” Billy said, straightening, “Jacob is going to need to get to bed. After all, there’s school tomorrow. Welcome back to Forks, Bella.”

And, with a warm smile at her, Billy started motioning Jacob to help him out of the house. Jacob groaned, rolling his eyes.

“Well, maybe we’ll see you around,” he said. “Judging by how much Charlie and Billy go fishing, we might want to start up a video game night or something. I just got a game cube, so we could play Super Smash Brothers!”

Bella fixed a smile on her face. She’d never played one in her life. When she’d asked for a Playstation when she was ten, her mother told her point blank that she wouldn’t like it, and they didn’t have games for girls.

“It could be fun,” Charlie looked at her hopefully.  

“Ah…sure…” Bella said.

“Great! Maybe I can Embry and Quil and maybe Leah to come too…”

He was muttering about the party he was going to set up as she helped his father out the door and they said their goodnights, and Bella repeated her thanks for the car. When she could hear the sounds of the Billy’s car leaving, Charlie turned again to her.

“That was fun,” Bella said, and it was, though the idea of a big video game party wasn’t something that she was sure about.

Tentatively, Charlie had put a hand on her shoulder. For a moment neither of them said anything.

“You’d better get to bed. You’ve got a big day ahead of you. I’ve already called the school and enrolled you so…”

“Thanks, Dad. For everything,” she seemed to be saying that a lot today.

After a final moment, Charlie let go and said his goodnights, leaving Bella to get a drink of water and head back to her room, where the lamp was on, and her bags were sitting at the foot of the bed, waiting for her. Bella sat down on the bed, looking at the room around her.

It wasn’t home. The mattress was wrong, and she missed Renee, but it wasn’t going to be too bad. She’d be fine. She’d been welcomed with open arms. Charlie was almost painfully happy to have her there. All the room needed was some pictures…and some lights, and maybe…

She’d be fine.

Bella sighed, moving her luggage onto the bed to get ready to unpack. There wasn’t too much there, so she’d send an email to Renee that she probably wouldn’t read until the next day and head to bed.

There was a noise outside that she didn’t recognize, and she stood up, moving to the window to look out at her new home. She could see her new car, waiting patiently for the next morning when she’d was going to drive it to school, and there were the lights of the neighbors’ houses, for once a respectable distance away.

Maybe it had been the wind? Or the rain. It was still pattering gently on the roof, so maybe a branch had fallen or something. It was probably going to take a while to get used to this…

She’d be fine.

Something move in the yard, and Bella jumped back automatically.

Whatever it was, it had been _big_. A deer? A bear? That sounded so stupid, but bears lived in Washington, right? And Forks was small enough…

Bella refused to go running to her father like a paranoid little five-year-old and tell him that she thought that she’d seen a stinking _bear_.

Probably just a deer. Hadn’t Billy or Charlie or Jacob mentioned them?

That didn’t stop her from closing the curtains and locking her window.


	2. Sighting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Corner: Back again! Thanks so much for all of your support!
> 
> People seem to like my Bella and Charlie well enough, and I’m really glad. Hopefully, other characters will get the same reception.
> 
> So, this is more or less part 2 of Meyer’s original first chapter. Most of the changes here are Bella’s reactions to people, and the fact that I’m trying to make the Cullens seem more legitimately threatening rather than just the pretty people who are standoffish. That was one of the things that always bothered me about the books.
> 
> As always, I have specific things from the chapter at the end!
> 
> I hope that you enjoy!

Bella might have thought that the rain would make things hard to sleep, but it was the opposite. Something about the lulling, gentle, repetitive sound, without the thunder that usually accompanied storms in Phoenix, had her out like a light in no time.

The gentle sound of the rain on the roof and running water in the bathroom was what Bella woke up to. For a moment, she was a little disorientated, but the moment that she opened her eyes and looked around at the small, creamy white room, she remembered the events of the previous day. This was her room now. She was in Charlie’s house for the first time in years. This was Forks.

She was…home.

Instantly, she powered up the computer at her desk. While she hated the fact that she was checking her email first thing in the morning, she wanted to see if her mother had sent her anything. There was nothing, and Bella told herself not to be surprised. After all, Renee had probably been out with Phil, and she hadn’t really had the time or the thought to check her email. And why should she? Still, for some stupid reason she found herself feeling vaguely disappointed.

Charlie was already out of the shower when she stepped into the hall and was finishing up a small bowl of oatmeal and his coffee when Bella came down. He smiled when she came in.

“Morning,” Bella said.

“Morning,” Charlie said. “Er…there’s some oatmeal and cereal in the pantry. I wasn’t sure what you like better, but this weekend, you can come with me and choose your own breakfast if you like.”

“Alright, that sounds great,” Bella said, heading for the pantry.

She was honestly pretty flexible when it came to breakfast. Renee didn’t really have a favorite thing, and Bella always ended up eating what Renee got at the time.

The pantry was small, but well stocked. With plenty of things for cooking. That surprised her a little. The way Renee had always talked about her first weeks with Charlie, it had sounded like he hadn’t been able to do much as boil water, but half of the things in here were open and neatly packed away. While she’d been there for a month when she was younger, Bella didn’t remember them eating at the house all that much. Though, now that she thought about it, it could have easily been just because Charlie wanted to make the time…special for her.

“We’re having hamburger tonight,” Charlie said, noting that Bella was looking too long. “I should be in by six.”

“Oh. Ok,” Bella said, feeling incredibly stupid.

Of course Charlie would know how to cook by this time. He’d been alone for years. Had she been under the vague impression that he was living off of takeout like some kind of stereotypical college guy?

“I’ve got a little bit of time before school starts,” Bella said, changing the subject as quickly as she could. “Is there somewhere I could get some coffee?”

She was a little addicted to lattes, and she wanted a treat for herself. It was sort of a bribe, Bella supposed, but when she was about to do something she didn’t like, she tended to get herself a nice coffee, and now she had that car money…

“Hill of Beans is close to the school, you’ll see it right before you turn. Greg, the owner, has told me that a lot of students like to go there before class or for lunch. You might meet some classmates there.”

That wasn’t an idea that she was overly thrilled to consider, but she nodded none the less. 

* * *

 

It was raining lightly (still) when Bella left for school (and coffee).

Jacob had been right. The car sounded like there was something trying to get out of the engine, and it was a very good thing that she had insisted that she learn how to drive a stick. But, honestly, it felt nice to drive the truck, even nicer since she didn’t stand out. So many people on the road seemed to have old, beat out cars, that she felt like she wasn’t just flaunting what ‘Daddy had gotten her’. So, she chugged out, and tried to find a local channel on the radio that played something that she liked. She noted that Jacob, who looked like he knew a lot more about cars than she did, had managed to attach a CD player to the thing, she’d need to call him and say thanks.

Even though she was fairly sure that it had been a mistake. It at least gave him the ability to clear things up and get it back.

Hill of Beans was a small shop, and looked more like it belonged in Portland than Forks. She supposed that maybe that was why there was already a group of students in line when she came in. There were some curious looks for the unfamiliar face, but they seemed more interested in coffee than in gossip, and that was just how Bella was going to like it.

The little wood tables and mismatched mugs along the walls seemed like something out of a show. Maybe she’d come on another day and…do something. Read a book, she supposed.

“Morning,” the barista, a young man who looked like he was, maybe, just out of high school, said cheerfully. “Welcome to the Hill of Beans. You new?”

“Er…yeah…” Bella said, feeling some kind of invisible spotlight on her face. “I just moved her to live with my dad…Chief Swan…”

“Oh, so you’re Bella,” the guy said. “Greg mentioned that Charlie was asking about places that students usually ate. I’m Ben, by the way.”

Someone behind her coughed, and Bella got the memo. “Anyways, can I get a vanilla latte?”

“Sure,” Ben said, “So, how are you liking Forks?”

The real answer was that she was still undecided, but no one ever actually wanted the real answer.

“It seems really nice. It’s a lot smaller than Phoenix,” Bella said.

Ben nodded, and Bella backed up, finally allowing the next person, a blonde girl who looked a little puffy eyed, ordered coffee with a shot of expresso.

That had to be unhealthy. Not that she was all that much better.

There were some curious looks at the newcomer, which, given the school had about three hundred people in it who had mostly grown up there, wasn’t that surprising. Still, Bella kept her head down, grabbed her drink and made her way as quickly as she could to school, which was only a little bit down the road.

Forks High was tiny. At least in comparison to her old school. And, as she’d thought, most of the students were trudging together in their little groups of friends. Oh there were one or two loners, but even they greeted and were greeted by a few people. Bella sat in the car for a moment, closed her eyes, took a breath, and opened the door. It was going to be an adventure. That was what Renee always called new things. And right now, she wished she was more like her mother than her father.

No one particularly looked her way, other than one or two curious glances, but that didn’t stop the feeling of a spotlight on her as she entered the squat building, heading to administration. The first thing that really hit her though, was the lack of a metal detector at the door. While Phoenix had had metal detectors and drills should a shooter come on campus, Forks High seemed to take it on faith that either their kids wouldn’t do such a thing or if they would, they’d at least go down to Port Angeles to do it. 

As it was, it was the first time since she was a kid that she didn’t have the vague feeling that she was going to prison.

It was…almost nice.

The principal’s office was also pretty small, with one of the ugliest rugs that Bella had ever seen on the floor, but a lot of plants everywhere that did their best to make it so that this looked like a welcoming place for students to go.

The small black woman in the secretary’s desk looked up from some files as she came in. She could almost see her running Bella’s face through his memory and turning up empty.

“Um. Hi.” Bella said, giving a quick look at the name tag on the desk. “Ms. Greyview. Um…my dad, Charlie Swan, came in about a week ago and registered me for class. I’m er…Isabella Swan.”

She hated her full name. It made her sound like a particularly weepy protagonist of some bad afternoon soap opera.

“Oh, so you’re Isabella,” Ms. Greyview nodded. “Charlie seemed pretty excited to have you here. I have your transcript and grades in front of me actually. Now, it says here that you had some AP classes and you had fulfilled your PE requirement in Phoenix, but unfortunately, we don’t have an AP program here, just Honors, so I’ve registered you for that, and we have a four year PE requirement here. Also, Charlie mentioned that you prefer to be called ‘Bella’, so I’ve added that as a note for your teachers.”

Bella suppressed a groan. The last thing that she needed was to make a fool of herself in front of everyone. She was slow, she dropped things all the time, and got red faced and blotchy whenever she was exercising.

“Oh. Alright,” she actually said.

“I wish we did have an AP program here,” Ms. Greyview said, rolling her eyes, clearly misinterpreting her expression. “We’re just too small, I guess. Anyways, I’ve marked places like the councilor’s office here,” said, pointing out a red mark on a map of the school that was with her class schedule. “If you have any trouble or questions, you can talk to me or one of the other teachers. Otherwise, unless you have any questions…”

“I should probably just find my first class,” Bella said.

Ms. Greyview nodded as the bell rang above her. “Well, it was good to meet you. Welcome to Forks.”

“Thank you,” Bella said with a nervous, obligatory smile.

She slipped out, doing her best to find her way to her first class. One nice thing about Forks high was that the size made it easier to find everything.

Mr. Berty’s English class wasn’t that hard to find. He gave her a somewhat curious look as she slipped in and grabbed the spring syllabus. There were some other curious looks as well, but since she wasn’t just coming into the middle of the year, she didn’t have to stand there and introduce herself like a moron. She sat down in the back, taking a look at the reading list for English. Hawthorn, Faulkner and Poe were familiar to her, but not Morrison or Huston. Or rather, she’d heard of Morrison for a summer reading that her last English teacher had recommended her, but Renee had thrown a fit.

It looked like she was going to learn about her anyway.

“Alright, everyone,” Mr. Berty said. “I hope that you’ve all had a good holiday break. We’ve even got some new faces in the crowd this time around. But, it’s time for us to start our new year with Faulkner’s _As I Lay Dying_.”

There were some groans, and Bella settled into her seat. It wasn’t too bad. The loss of AP was a pain, since she wouldn’t have the credits, but other than a few curious looks towards the blatantly new face, the spotlight that she’d felt on her was starting to fade out as she did her best to copy down everything that Berty was saying.

This was why she liked English. She could focus on analyzing someone else’s problems that were totally removed from her. The deeper meaning of “my mother is a fish” was something that was fun to puzzle out, and…something about it meaning the same thing whether she was in Arizona or Washington made her feel better somehow.

Even after the bell rang, and the guy who sat next to her turned over to look at her curiously, she didn’t feel quite as nervous. He was a small, wiry boy with a friendly grin on his face that Bella tried to return and probably failed at miserably.

“So, you new here?” he asked. “Most people end up leaving Forks, not coming to live here.”

Bella put on a smile, and tried to look something other than ‘isn’t used to contact with human beings her own age’.

“Yeah. I’m…staying with my dad. My name’s Bella Swan.”

“…You mean Chief Swan?” the guy asked as they got their books. “I’m Eric Yorkie, by the way.”

“Oh, yeah. That’s my dad,” Bella nodded.

“Oh,” someone else interjected, and Bella noticed the blonde girl from the coffee shop come up next to Eric. “He comes to the elementary and talks about what a policeman does every year. He came in last year for that drug seminar too, right?”

Eric nodded. “Seemed a little nervous.”

Bella was sure he was. Charlie hated public speaking.

“Oh, I’m Angela! Nice to meet you!” the blonde said with a smile. “So, where are you from?”

They left the classroom and into the hall, but while the other two looked like they were going to keep moving, Bella stopped, looking at her schedule.

“Phoenix,” she said. “It’s…really different here. Er…can either of you tell me where government is?”

“Oh, that’s building four. It’s to the left. Keep going straight, and follow the sign Jefferson is the second door to the left,” Angela said. “My friend Jessica is in that class.”

Bella was willing to bet that everyone had friends in all the classes. Still, they were nice. Maybe people in small towns were friendlier than cities. Also, she supposed, that if the insider/outsider thing that she’d read about when researching living in a small town was true, she was sort of an insider. After all, she was Charlie’s daughter.

If any of them thought about it at all, it was probably the way things should be. Chief Swan’s daughter, come home at last.

* * *

 

  
The next class did contain someone named Jessica, a chatty girl who gave a lot of information about the school and the classes, but expected the same friendliness in return. Bella tried, but she wasn’t sure that she could match the enthusiasm of the others. Still, this was way better than she had expected to be. Most people didn’t really even notice her, other than a few curious looks, and even when they had, they had been friendly enough.

The real surprise was just how many people seemed to know Charlie. She’d know that he was a police chief that that sort of made him into an important figure for a smaller town like this one, but it seemed that he was a very active man in the community, and he was usually the one who spoke at any event that required the police. It was a little rough on him, she knew. Still, some selfish part of her was glad that he was well liked, some of that seemed to be rubbing off on her.

Bella was not looking forwards to lunch. In Phoenix, lunch hadn’t been all that interesting. One half of the students ate off campus, so there were usually plenty of empty areas for her to sit, and while she didn’t have anyone who she actually would have called her friend, there were people who she was on speaking terms with and didn’t mind her sitting close by and eating.

Already, Bella could tell that this wasn’t going to be the case. Everyone was in tight little groups, chatting softly with one another. She clutched her tray harder, trying to find some empty place that didn’t feel like she was plopping herself down with a group and proclaiming themselves friends.

“Hi!” A high, bright voice said.

Bella turned around to see a small girl grinning up at her. She was extremely thin, and her black hair was cut into a jagged style that seemed somehow artfully disheveled, and clothing that looked like it came from one of those fashion magazines that Renee constantly tried to get Bella to read. But what really had Bella’s attention was her face. She was startlingly pretty, in an almost eerie way. Most people had some kind of blemish, some kind of flaw or freckle or…something, but this girl looked almost like a porcelain doll. It didn’t even make her feel jealous, just…slightly weirded out.

The girl didn’t wait for Bella to say anything, but continued on, smiling excitedly and giving Bella a good look at her perfect white teeth.

“You’re going to sit with us!” she said brightly. “It’ll be lots of fun. Oh-oh and we can go and-”

Before Bella could so much as step back, someone else had stepped in. The young man had the same…flawlessness that the girl did, complete with the pretty features, but there were differences. Both of them had rings around their eyes them made them look sick, or on heroin, but the guy was worse off looking. While the girl’s eyes were a sort of dull brown, he was wearing amber contacts that made him look almost feral. And unlike the disheveled look of the girl, the young man’s honey blond hair was carefully styled, and he towered above Bella. Thankfully, he wasn’t looking at her.

“Alice,” he sighed.

“It’s ok, Jasper!” the girl said, “We’re going to be best friends! I’m just inviting her to sit with us!”

“You’re not best friends yet,” ‘Jasper’ said, gently turning the girl around and nudging her towards a table towards the back.

“But we won’t be friends if we don’t sit together!” the girl said. “That’s how it works! I saw it on that show last night!”

“You can invite her once you’ve had the chance to talk to her,” Jasper said. “Why don’t you see if you share a class?”

Could they not?

“Ok!” Alice said, moving over to the table that Jasper was nudging her towards.

And, moving was about the right word for it, she was…almost walking on tippy toe the whole way.

The boy sighed a little, running one hand through his hair. Then, he looked over at her.

“Sorry about Alice,” he said. “She doesn’t mean any harm. She just…doesn’t always know how to talk to other people.”

Bella looked after the girl and then back to the…very pretty boy. Yet…Bella found that, while she certainly wasn’t usually averse to looking at pretty men, something about him put her less in mind of how good looking he was, and more in mind of the fact that his eyes made him look like a hungry wolf.

“Er…it’s fine. I mean…she was just trying to be nice.”

She thought. Someone about pair of them was seriously putting her one edge. Maybe it was the fact that neither of them had blinked once since she saw them.

“Oh, Bella!” someone shouted, and Bella turned to see Jessica waving to her.

She was seated with a small group that contained Angela and Eric, as well as two boys that she didn’t know. Bella had never been more happy to have someone call out to her before.

“Er…I need to go…” she said, moving away from Jasper and towards the group that was now watching the whole thing.

As she slipped into her seat, Jessica shook her head.

“Looks like Alice decided that she liked you,” she said.

“Who’s Alice?”

“One of the Cullen kids. She’s…well…I dunno...” Jessica said. “I mean…she seems nice and stuff, but she’s… _weird_. Sometimes, right in the middle of class, she just sort of spaces out and says stuff. Like, I had her tell me not to come home over the main road once.”

“Did you?” Eric asked.

“Of course I did. I nearly got into an accident ‘cause I was so spooked though…”

“Jasper usually watches out for her,” Angela said with a shrug. “They’re nice enough, I guess, but they don’t really interact with anyone.”

“Can you blame them?” Another boy, with short, spiked brown hair and an easy smile asked. “I mean…they’re like…dating each other, and they’re siblings.”

“They’re what?” Bella asked, her voice going kind of flat.

While she wasn't normally fond of gossip, that was a little extreme.

“Yeah, siblings.”

Jessica rolled her eyes.

“It’s not that bad. So, Doctor Cullen moved here right after his graduation, with his wife and younger brothers and sister Emmett, Edward and Alice. Then his wife Esme’s niece and nephew Jasper and Rosalie Hale lost their parents. The Cullens kind of adopted them, and then Alice and Jasper started a thing and so did Rosalie and Emmett,” she said with a shrug. “The only one who didn’t was Edward. He’s gorgeous but doesn’t seem interested.”

That was said in the kind of bored voice of someone who had asked, gotten rejected and completely lost interest.

Angela (and Erik) gave more or less assenting nods while the other boys shrugged.

Bella took a glimpse over at all of them. They were sitting quietly, no food on their plates other than Alice, talking softly to one another. Alice was pointing at her with a big grin. One of them, a slight boy with red-brown hair, looked up at her, narrowed his eyes, shook his head and looked back down. Alice, seemingly sensing Bella’s eyes, started to wave to her.

Bella turned back, and busied herself with the conversation, which had moved on, away from the Cullens, and onto what Erik was doing in drama. Apparently they were doing a production of _Pride and Prejudice_ , and the leading lady was being a bit of a primadonna. Erik was playing Mr. Wickham, and seemed to be doing his best to chew on the scenery and twirl his mustache to annoy her.

Angela was giggling a little in a way that told Bella that she was fond of him. While she didn’t add much to the conversation, Bella…kind of liked…being with people like this.

It was almost like having friends.

“So, what clubs were you in in Phoenix?” the boy with spiky hair asked.

“Oh, um,” Bella started. The truth was none.

There hadn’t been time at home for her to go to clubs. Once she was done with school, her mother usually needed something. Or wanted to go out. That wasn’t that it was a bad thing. She’d really enjoyed some of the things that they’d done, but it hadn’t left times for things like clubs…

“I was mostly just doing AP things. I guess I didn’t have a lot of time for clubs and stuff…”

“Oh, too bad,” the boy said.

“Hoping that you’ll get someone else for anime club, Mike?” Jessica asked.

“A guy can dream.”

“Maybe if the only thing you guys watched weren’t the really obscure ones… Or at least the one that had good dubs.”

“Hey! Subs are totally better anyways!”

And they off. Bella smiled a little. While she had no investment either way, it was kind of fun to listen to. Some traitorous part of her was even starting to hope that things would be like this every lunch. While they weren’t friends necessarily, she kind of hoped that she’d be invited to sit there and listen to their friendships.

But her thoughts were interrupted as she felt someone’s eyes on her. Bella looked up at the table where Alice Cullen had been sitting, half expecting to see the girl looking at her, but what she saw was one of the others, the boy with red-brown hair from before, glowering at her. And rather than look away the way that most strangers did when their eyes met, he held her gaze with his own dark one, until Bella was the one who looked down.

Creep.

While Alice had been a little odd, this guy was just…staring at her.

Determining to ignore him, Bella focused on her lunch, and listened to the conversation around her until the bell rang.

“You have biology, right?” Mike asked as they gathered up their supplies.

“Oh, yeah,” Bella said. “Do you know where it’s going to be?”

“Yeah,” Mike grinned. “It’s with Mr. Banner. And, thankfully, I’ve got him too.”

Bella smiled a little.

“Great. I’m glad I know someone there.”

And she was.

Mike asked a lot of questions about Phoenix as they walked, though he seemed more like he was drumming up conversation than anything else. He thought that the idea of the desert sounded a little depressing, and no matter how sunny, didn’t much like the heat. It wasn't really something that Bella had thought about, but Forks was more alive in some ways than Phoenix. The trees and the green and everything, if you grew up with them, might be hard to exchange for the browns and grays of the desert. It was a strange thought.

Once at Banner’s classroom, Mike split off to sit with a boy called Tyler who seemed to be his lab partner, and Bella awkwardly was forced to walk up and introduce herself quietly to Banner.

“Er…Mr. Banner, I’m Bella Swan. I just came to live here and er…I don’t have a partner.”

Banner blinked at her once, and looked past her at everyone who was seated.

“Alright, Miss Swan, why don't you sit down next to Edward Cullen over there,” he said, pointing at the slight boy who had been glowering at her at lunch. "Looks like we finally have an even number of students."

Bella paused. He was looking away from her, down at his desk, so maybe he hadn’t noticed her. Some part of her was already hoping that they could just get through the whole thing while ignoring one another. Banner nodded once, almost like he was trying to be encouraging and failing, and Bella moved over towards the boy.

“Hi,” she said.

The boy, Edward, she supposed, didn’t move or give any indication that he’d so much as heard her.

She sighed, sitting down. This was going to be…fun. She supposed that something had to go badly today. After all, so far everything had been pretty good.

“Alright, everyone, this class is going to be something of a reorientation, but rest assured, I’m going to be as hard on you as a real college teacher would be. Since this is honors, most of you should already be thinking about college…”

Bella would have liked to have been listening, after all, she was going to need to talk to someone about what school she wanted to go to (even if she had no real clue what she wanted to do with herself in the future) but she wasn’t able to.

Edward Cullen had, out of nowhere, whipped around to face her so that their faces were maybe two inches apart, if she was being generous. Bella suddenly got a very good look at dull green eyes that looked like they weren’t quite seeing her. His whole body was trembling as he looked at her, and for a second, she caught what looked like a hint of-was that drool coming from his mouth?

“Mr. Cullen, if you wish to introduce yourself to Miss Swan, please do so on your own free time.”

Banner’s dry voice seemed to snap the boy out of…something, and he whipped away, taking a shuddering breath, and then clapping one hand over his mouth and stiffening like he was going to be sick.

Bella was already leaning as far as she could from Edward, her back against the wall. She didn’t know what was wrong with him, but that look on his face had been terrifying. Cullen, meanwhile was leaned as far away from her as he could be while still being seated, back to her, and was he biting his hand?

First drool and now this. Bella had no idea just what he was on, but she was pretty sure that it was something nasty. She’d seen people on acid before, but even they hadn’t acted like this. He’d been practically sniffing her!

The lecture continued, but Bella wasn’t paying attention, rather she was holding her mechanical pencil like a knife while she glanced at Cullen every so often. While some part of her said that it wasn’t going to be much of a help if he did…do something, she didn’t care. The fact that she had something…

Cullen wasn’t making any further moves towards her, but she was in the back of the room. The only person who would see anything was Banner, and he looked a little engrossed in his PowerPoint on the projector to give too much of an opinion on just what Edward was doing. She would have liked to have been paying attention, but the quivering presence next to her made it difficult to think of anything other than the clock ticking down to the point where she could run for the door.

And she was planning on running. She didn’t care how stupid she looked. As the clock counted down to the bell, it seemed that everything got quieter, and even Mr. Banner’s voice got harder and harder to hear as he continued talking about the basics of biology and Bella counted down to the moment that she could run for it.

Bella was tensed for the moment that the bell rang, but she needn’t have bothered. The moment that the buzzing was heard above her, there was a blur of motion next to her, and Edward Cullen was gone so quickly that the chair was knocked over by the force of his going. Bella stood up, looking around and shaking a little.

“What was that?” she hissed.

Just for a second, a second blur of motion caught her eye, and she turned to see a familiar honey blond head. Jasper Hale was standing in the doorway. For a moment, their eyes met, and then he turned away, walking quickly. Bella ran forwards, but was jostled by the crowd and by the time that she managed to get to the hall, he was gone.

* * *

 

  
The rest of the day went by normally. Well, as normally as anything could be after that had happened. What was the most upsetting thing was that no one seemed to have even noticed Edward’s behavior. Even Mike, who had only been across from them, had only laughed about how ‘Cullen looked like you stabbed him with that pencil’.

Was this normal?

Even the horror of gym, and the fact that she’d nearly broken her neck while running for absolutely no reason, couldn’t get her mind off of biology class and what had happened.

“He was breathing down my neck!” Bella protested as they started to leave after the final bell.

Mike grinned.

“Well, you gotta do what you gotta do, I guess. At least Banner didn’t see anything. He’s a jerk.”

He hadn’t seen it. Had any of them seen it? It had seemed like Edward’s little performance had been for her eyes only. Even right after, when Edward had run off the way that he had, no one had looked around or even seemed to notice as the chair fell to the ground. It was strange, and she couldn't shake off the feeling that there was something very, very wrong about what had happened. Other than the fact that Edward had looked like he wanted to eat her or something.

Bella had no idea what that had been, and at present, she had no idea what to do.

Should she go and report it? But no one else had seen it, and the last thing that she wanted to do on her first day was seem paranoid, but he had been acting really, really weird. Maybe she should transfer. Like…say that she wanted to have PE right after lunch (since apparently she wanted to get sick) and ask to switch times.

“I need to head back to Ms. Greyview,” Bella said after a moment as Mike and his friends were regrouping.

“Oh, alright,” Jessica smiled. “See you tomorrow!”

Bella smiled and raised one hand, as they went off. They seemed nice enough, and maybe if she’d asked she could have gone with them…where ever they’d gone, but she still needed to get back home.

Besides, she wanted to think.

Rather than head to the parking lot, she turned into the office, where Ms. Greyview was sitting. How was she going to phrase this?

“So, how was your day?” Ms. Greyview asked, smiling a little bit.

It started out surprisingly well, and then dive bombed into something she had no idea what to do with.

“It was really great,” Bella lied, smiling as best she could.

“Glad to hear it.”

“But…um…” Bella said, trying to think of how to put this. “Well…I was thinking that maybe…doing PE right after lunch might be…good for me?”

Who would believe that?

Ms. Greyview blinked, but rather than call her out on the obvious lie, she just shook her head.

“Unfortunately, that's the only time available with Biology. Unless you don’t want to take honors…”

“No!” Bella said quickly. “I’ll be fine!”

She was going to take honors! And apparently, she was going to need to figure out a way to deal with Edward. She didn’t want to just report him. Not only because she really didn’t want Charlie to worry about her, but also because…no one else had seen anything. For anything to really happen, they needed some kind of proof, and…he hadn’t done anything, right?

She was so confused.

“I guess…I guess I’ll get going. Thanks so much for everything…” Bella said lamely, putting on a fake smile and slipping out before she could look sillier.

Outside the office, she stood for a second, trying to collect her thoughts. While the big crowd of people leaving was gone, there were still some people loitering around, and in the end, it was the thought of people seeing her that made her head out to the parking lot. For the first time, she was grateful for the cold, biting wind, though not for the overcast skies. It was bringing her back to her senses. She'd go back to Charlie's house and figure out what she was going to do from there. She looked towards her car and stopped.

All five Cullens were huddled in a little pack around a large, silver SUV. Over Alice’s head, she could see the form of Edward Cullen, sitting in the back, head buried against the seat. Alice turned around, blinked at her once, and then raised a hand to say hello, but the motion made the Edward Cullen raise his head again. Before he could move further, Jasper and a boy who was built like a football player had jumped into the back, while the blonde had hauled the front door open, and sat down quickly, with little Alice dashing around the other side.

With one look at her, the blonde girl had pulled out of the parking spot and sped out, making a sharp turn and leaving Bella staring after them, blinking a few times.

They were all insane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that’s it for now! So, Bella’s a little more legitimately creeped out by the Cullens in this version. Not that they’re not all acting ridiculously sketchy. Also, my Bella is more of the type to not really be interested in Edward giving her a mean look. She certainly isn’t going to cry in the car over it.
> 
> I hope that you’ve enjoyed, and I’d love to hear any feedback that you might have!
> 
> Additional Notes:
> 
> Ben: Angela’s random throw away boyfriend dropped out and got a job at Hill of Beans. He’s not a particularly significant character in the series, so I’m going to do something with him. Also, Movie!Eric was a better character period. You’ll notice that I’m going to be blending a lot of movie canon into this.
> 
> Bella’s Book List: I changed things around so that it’s more of an ‘American lit’ class rather than just random things that were read off of the Common Core and put together. Classes have themes. 
> 
> Alice: So begins Alice’s aggressive friendship courting. 
> 
> Bella Being Freaked Out: So, if you notice, Bella is the only one who finds how pretty the vampires are disturbing. This is completely intentional. My!Bella doesn’t get ‘dazzled’, so the fact that they’re predators is much more clear to her than it is to most people. I’m working to essentially give Bella some continuity with her power, and yes, it’s a power.
> 
> Vampire’s Eyes: So, in the original story, everyone’s eyes turned red/yellow depending on if they were eating people or not. I’m not doing that. I kind of like the idea of vampires being able to blend into humanity a little better than that. The eyes are going to be an indicator, just not an extremely obvious one.


	3. Suspicion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Cullens respond to Edward's strange behavior, and the murders start coming uncomfortably close.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m enjoying the feedback that this thing is getting! Thank you all so much for your comments and thoughts.
> 
> So, things are going to deviate slightly from canon from here on out. There are some scenes that I’m going to change, others that I’m going to keep, and some that were a big deal in the books that I honestly don’t think are all that interesting. 
> 
> Mostly because a lot of the scenes in the book seem more or less like they’re repeating things and ideas, or that they’re just not really necessary for the action to move forward.

The phone didn’t ring until Bella and Charlie were halfway through dinner. She had gone home, almost unsure of what to expect, and found herself getting increasingly edgy when she had started on homework.

Even the brief, happy email from Renee, talking about the nice restaurant that Phil had taken her to and how she’d like to take Bella there when she came home, did nothing to ease her mind. Renee honestly seemed to have convinced herself that this was little more than a vacation that Bella would eventually be home from. If only.

The problem was that she didn’t want to upset Charlie. Not when he had already put out so much work to make his house somewhere for both of them, and so obviously wanted her to stay there.

But she didn’t want to particularly want to spend another class with Edward.

When he came home, she and Charlie spent an awkward half of dinner. While the burgers were extremely good, neither of them seemed to know how to break the silence between them. It was always so hard to find a place to start during the first week. It was hard to ask too much about work, since, being the police chief in a small town like Forks usually meant that things were pretty quiet for the most part, and talking about Phoenix meant talking about Renee.

“So, er, how was school?” Charlie said, clearing his throat to break the silence.

“It was…fine,” Bella said. “Most of the people there are really nice.”

It wasn’t even a lie. Most of the people had been really nice. A lot more than she thought that they would be.

Charlie nodded, clearly trying to be encouraging, and Bella plunged on. Renee never much asked about school, and Bella never minded not talking about it. School was always difficult in its own ways. It was where she was good at academics, and mostly fell on her face when talking to other people, and group projects were always a horror.

“I met some people. Er…Jessica and um Mike. They seemed really nice and let me eat with them…” should she ask him about the Cullens? As chief of police, he might know, well, something.

Her thoughts were interrupted as the phone started to ring, and Charlie stood to pick it up.

“Hello? Oh, Esme, how are you? … Bella and I are having dinner right now, but… Oh?” Charlie glanced at Bella, a faint concern starting to show on his face. “Alright, I suppose…”

He put one hand on the phone and looked to Bella.

“Esme Cullen’s on the phone. She says that something happened between you and…Edward was it?”

Bella stiffened. There were a few things that she’d been thinking might happen, but not that someone was going to call.

“Er…it wasn’t that big of a deal…”

Edward had just been all but panting at her and drooling. That was perfectly normal, and she was sure that the woman would be calling to apologize rather than complaining about something or other and trying to make him into the innocent victim.

Still, she took the phone.

“Er…hi?”

“Hello, is this Isabella?” a young woman’s voice asked. She sounded slightly frustrated.

“Yeah.”

“My name is Esme Culle; I’m calling because that my brother-in-law, Edward apparently gave you a scare this afternoon. He would like to apologize for his behavior. Would you be willing to speak with him?”

Bella blinked a few times.

What could he even say make that normal?

Still, she was going to be mature. She was not going to let this guy know just how much she’d been creeped out by his behavior.

Besides, a sort of morbid curiosity was rising in her to see just what he was going to say and what he had been said to this Esme person. It wasn’t as if this changed anything other than the fact that he was at the very least attempting to take responsibility.

“Um. Alright,” Bella said. “I guess…”

“Thank you so much,” the woman said with a sigh.

Bella could hear as she put her hand on the phone, but that didn’t stop an unfamiliar young man’s voice shouting something about ‘taking it like a man’ in the background from getting through to her. Then someone else had taken the phone and a smooth, unfamiliar voice that she presumed was Edward was talking.

“Hello, Miss Swan,” he stopped there, as if trying to collect his thoughts and then plunged on. “I wanted to apologize for what happened during biology this afternoon. I assure you that it will never occur again."

“Er…” It almost sounded like he was reciting something.

“I…assume that you wish to know what happened…to…er… I…have been very ill lately, and my older brother, Carlisle, prescribed me some medication so that I could attend class today… I suppose that I was experiencing side effects from it. I had no idea that the effects would be so…potent. I am sorry for any alarm that I caused you.”

He was claiming that his episode was the result of cold medicine. How stupid did he think that she was? Maybe it was the medicine, but a completely different kind. Like anti-psychotic, and he had been off of them.

There was silence at the other end, where Edward was, presumably waiting for her reply. While some part of her desperately wanted to call him out on the obvious lie, the sane majority of her said just to let it be. And avoid him like the plague after this.

“Er. Ok,” Bella said. “I…think I understand what you’re saying.”

That he was lying. So therefore, she could lie too. Also, it wasn’t an ‘I forgive you.’

And I seemed to know it too.

“I am…glad that you are being understanding. I apologize again for upsetting you the way that I did,” he said.

Now that surprised her. Most of the people, guys and girls, that she knew from school would have expected something more than that. Renee would have definitely chided her for being ‘mean’.

And suddenly Esme was one the phone again.

“Right. Well. That happened. He really does mean it; he just isn’t saying it very well,” the last part sounded like she was shooting a glare in the boy’s direction.

“He sounds like he ate the dictionary!” Someone, the same male voice as before, yelled from the other room.

“You attempted to use antidisestablishmentarianism in a sentence once!” Edward called back.

There was a loud sigh from Esme, and Bella had the sudden feeling that the woman was rubbing her temples.

“Thank you for being kind enough to listen. I promise we’ll be changing the prescription. Carlisle had no idea that he’d act that strangely because of it,” While Esme seemed a little more normal than Edward had seemed, there was still something about her voice that told her that the woman might be lying and covering up for Edward. “Would you mind if I talked to Charlie again?”

Bella was pretty sure that Esme was about to tell her version of events, but at the same time, she supposed that she could tell Charlie. He…he would believe her if their stories clashed, right?

“Ah, sure, and um, thanks. I mean for the apology…”

She was pretty sure Esme had set him up to it, and she didn’t forgive Edward for scaring her that badly, but…it was nice that she had been apologized to.

“You’re welcome. I hope that, if we do talk again, it will be under better circumstances.”

She handed the phone to Charlie, and waited while he nodded glanced at Bella every so often.

“Thank you for telling me, Esme,” he said. “Have a good night. … You too.”

He hung the phone up and then paused, looking at Bella.

“Is this why you were hesitant to talk about school?” he asked.

“Er…”

Charlie sat down, taking a drink of water from the glass next to him.

“Carlisle is a friend of mine,” he said softly. “He sometimes helps us at the station, and I’m pretty sure that once he gets some more experience under his belt, he’ll be working at some of some famous hospital down south. I know the kids too. I always thought that they were pretty well behaved, but Bella, if you feel threatened by one of them, don’t hesitate to tell me."

Bella looked up, completely surprised by the direction that this conversation was taking.

“Esme says that you were rightly frightened since Edward was on an experimental cold medicine and it had some side effects that no one expected. She says that she and Carlisle will take care of it, and I trust them to do that, but if you don’t want to be in class with him anymore, you just have to tell me, and we can work something out.”

Bella stared at her father, blinking and not sure what to say to that. Some horrible, traitorous voice told her that Renee wouldn’t have said that to her. Renee would have just been glad that the misconception was cleared up and things could go back to normal.

She opened her mouth, looked down at the hamburger and closed it again.

He meant it. He really meant it. He’d enroll her in another school if she asked.

He probably let her go back to Phoenix.

“It’s fine,” she said after a second. “If you trust them to do something about it, then so will I.”

“Bella…”

“I mean…I’m not sure about seeing Edward again, but you said that you trust them, and they said they’d handle it. So, I’ll see where things go,” Bella said, looking up, and smiling once. “It’s the least I can do for you, and…if I don’t like things…then I’ll tell you.”

* * *

 

The next day, Edward Cullen wasn’t at school. Bella was not particularly sorry not to see him. Well, she supposed that when the Cullens had said that that’d take care of it, they’d meant it. No one seemed to mention the sudden lack of his presence, though when she brought it up, Jessica had just rolled her eyes, and muttered about how he was out again. 

Apparently the Cullens all had an abysmal attendance record. Eric seemed surprised that they were going to pass at all.  

Even gym, which Bella looked forwards to as much as one would a trip to the dentist without Novocain, seemed a little more welcoming than usual when she headed to class. Though that only lasted about as long as it took for them all to get changed into their gym clothes and stand around.

Forks High’s gym was fairly old, and it had the stale, sweaty smell that a gym would get after years of use, and Jessica had mentioned how in her Freshman year, she’d managed to chip a tooth by tripping over some spill or other that the janitor hadn’t managed to clean up yet. It wasn’t very encouraging, but somehow, in Bella’s mind, old or new, a gym was a gym, and all of them were pretty much alike.

As the gym teacher, a small woman who none the less looked like she could probably bench-press some of the bigger guys at the school, started to divide them into teams for volleyball, Bella could almost feel the woman categorize Bella as one of many of the ‘mousy girls who were going to do badly.’

She was right.

It took Bella three passes of the ball to get hit in the face. All she knew was that one moment the ball was coming towards her, and the next, she was on the ground, wind knocked out of her, and some concerned noises coming from around her.

“Oh my- are you alright?!” the girl who had passed the ball to her asked, looking very nervous. “I totally didn’t mean it! Do you have a concussion! I’m so sorry!”

Bella nodded her head that she was fine, but the ache told her that she had hit it pretty good when she fell.

The instructor was already leaning over Bella, asking a series of questions about how many fingers she was holding up and if she could remember everything.

“I-I’m fine,” Bella said, blinking again. She was pretty sure she was fine. It wasn’t that bad.

She refused to go to the nurse during her first week. Particularly over a little bump on the head. It wasn’t that bad!

The woman sighed and nodded.

“Alright, but take a break. On the bleachers. Five minutes. If you start to feel strange, you tell me that minute, and I’ll take you to the nurse myself.”

“I’ll help her sit down!” a high, familiar enthusiastic voice chimed.

The coach sighed, rolled her eyes a little but nodded.

Bella turned to look with surprise at Alice. She was certain that Alice wasn’t in this class before, but the woman just nodded towards her and motioned the girl forwards. Alice, who was wearing a red and white gym suit that looked well-coordinated and somehow out of place in a room of T-shirts and gym pants, grinned.

“I’m really fine…” Bella muttered, but Alice just kept going, taking her arm with a grip that was surprisingly strong and then leading her to the bleacher.

“I finally get to talk to you!” the girl said. “I managed to transfer over, since we can’t become friends unless we talk. Jasper was right. I wasn’t worried about the volleyball though. I knew that you weren’t going to really be hurt. You’re going to do better in this class then you think. Like, Coach Clapp is really super nice. She’ll want you to improve though.”

Bella blinked at the stream of words coming from the girl as they sat down. For a moment, she gave Alice a nervous look. After all she’d gotten her brother in trouble.

Now, the relationship between the Cullens was still a little confusing, they were clearly not triplets. Maybe Alice had been bumped ahead a few grades? She looked like she was only fifteen. Still…

“Edward’s really sorry about his freak out, just so you know,” Alice said, watching as the other girls passed the volleyball around. “Rosalie is complaining that he’s sulking, but I know better.”

“Er…” A sudden suspicion hit Bella. “Did he ask you to apologize or something?”

“What?” Alice looked up at her, still not blinking. “Oh, no! He hasn’t say anything about it. He’s really embarrassed. Besides,” a wicked grin appeared on her face. “If he did, he’d totally have to owe me!”

But whatever it was that Edward would have to owe Alice wasn’t going to be brought up, since the coach blew a sharp note, and motioned for Alice to get over there. The girl sighed, rolled her eyes, and grinned over at Bella.

“Oh, by the way, want to go to Port Angeles some time!? I know some really nice indie places to shop!”

She looked like she did.

“Um. Maybe…when I settle in and…stuff,” Bella said lamely.

“Alright! It’ll be so much fun!” Alice ran off, still in that weird, almost tiptoeing kind of motion.

The girl was weird, but compared to her brother, it was a kind of weird that Bella could take.

When Bella moved to stand up, the coach shook her head, and Bella groaned. Five minutes weren’t up.

She was going to fail this class at this rate.

She scowled as the girls continued passing the ball towards one another. She’d always kind of wished that she’d been better coordinated, if only because it would mean that this sort of thing wouldn’t happen. What was worse, it honestly looked fun. A lot more fun than soccer, at least.

That moment of peace wasn’t going to last. One of the girls hit the ball so that it went spiraling over the net to hit Alice right in the face. Bella sat up straight, watching, but Alice was still standing there, calm as anything, looking around at the shocked looks of the others with a confused look of her own. Then, for a second, her seemed to register something and promptly fall to the floor with a thud that seemed almost too loud for someone as small as her.

Then she sat up.

“I’m fine!” Alice chirped.

There was something wrong with the Cullens. All of them. And it was more than just being weird.

* * *

 

The rest of the day was, remarkably quiet. Bella found herself quickly being sort of absorbed into the fabric of Forks High as the girl who kind of hung around Jessica, Mike, Angela and Eric or at least ate with them. She was still a little too unsure about just…going off without Charlie knowing…to take them up on the offer to go over to Hill of Beans. Though there was a surprise there too. 

As she was heading for her car when Eric stopped her.

“Oh, by the way, Ben’s got the opening shift this week, we’re all going to come in there a little early, so if you want you can get some early coffee!”

Mike was grinning.

“We’re all going to surprise him.”

Jessica smirked, and Bella found herself nodding.

“That sounds like fun,” she said.

Charlie wouldn’t mind her leaving a little early, right? Renee never had. Coming in late, yes, but not leaving early.

“Alright, see you there.”

Bella smiled, a little of the confidence that she’d been feeling before the whole thing with Edward came back. It was a chance for her not to just seem like she was brushing them off too! It wasn’t that she didn’t want to be friends, it was that…well…Renee had always wanted her home right after school to help with dinner, and she couldn’t just expect Charlie to cook and stuff all the time.

While the stuff with the Cullens was weirder than fiction, Forks and the people there were…surprisingly nice.

She almost felt bad that she was less homesick than she thought that she would be. She clunked back to Charlie’s house, enjoying her ill-gotten CD player, and reminding herself that she needed to call Jacob and tell him about it. He’d probably miss it. After all, she only had a short drive between school and the house, and Jacob had a much longer time of it, since a lot of the places that she was pretty sure that he liked to go were pretty far out.

And, actually, it was kind of nice to be able to pull into Charlie’s driveway after just five minutes, no traffic and only one stop light.

They would make an optimist out of her yet!

Coming back to the quiet, orderly house was still slightly weird though. Bella looked around, but there was no form of the chaos that had always lived in Renee’s houses. Her room had always been the cleanest one in the house, but not hear. Maybe it would be different on the weekends. She wasn’t sure. That of all the stupid things made her go up and check her email. There was something from her mother.

_Bella,_

_Phil just showed me the cutest little house in Florida! I’ve attached a picture of it, but I’m not sure it’ll send. Tehe. I’m terrible at technology. Anyways, it’s really close to Phil’s work, and it’s just perfect for the two of us! And it’s so close to Disney World. I’m not that fond of it, but Phil wants to take me there when we move! It’s so sweet of him._

_I’m so excited to come there. It’s so sunny and warm, but it’s also so much greener than Arizona was, and there are so many interesting things to do close by! I’m not going to have a lot of time to write while we’re moving, but don’t worry, I’ll give you the blow by blow soon! Phil wants me to draw up a list in case I forget something, but I told him not to be silly. I know everything in the house. Besides, I’ve moved before, I know what to expect._

_I’ll talk to you soon!_

_Renee_

Bella stared at the message, trying to think of what to even say in reply. Her mother didn’t seem to want anything from her. Something cold and empty settled in her stomach as she reread the letter. She wasn’t even sure what it was that was bothering her, but it made her close the email (which didn’t have a picture) and start on her homework.

After all, Faulkner wasn’t going to read himself, and neither was her biology textbook, but she didn’t really want to do that either. Well, no one _wanted_ to do homework, it was just…

A sudden knock at the door had Bella all but jumping out of her chair at the sudden distraction. She headed down the stairs, looking out the window to see Jacob of all people. Now, Bella had been raised, like every little girl, with not opening the door, even to people that she knew, but…it was Jacob, and she couldn’t see Charlie getting upset. Besides…she really didn’t want to go upstairs at the moment.

She opened the door, and Jacob raised a hand with a grin.

“Hi there, Miss,” he said, a smirk on his face. “Do you have a moment for our lord and savior, Q’wati?”

“I…” Bella wasn’t sure how to answer that, but Jacob was grinning. “I think I’m content with Agnosticism for the moment,” Bella said.

“Joke’s on you, I’m not sure if Q’wati is actually even a god.” Jacob grinned, but looked a little nervous.

“What brings you so far out here?” Bella asked, and looking behind him for a car, she found none. “Did you…walk?”

“Psh, nah, I bummed a ride from Quil. He’s got a girlfriend who lives nearby, glad you’re in though.”

Bella was surprised how glad she was to see him, and stepped back a little to let him come in. “Any reason for the visit?” she asked, but Jacob’s smile fell a little.

“Well…actually…Charlie called Dad in the middle of the night for advice. Said that Edward Cullen had been really weird towards you, and he wasn’t sure what to do with it. Dad…er…asked me to go after school and talk about it.” Jacob shrugged.

Bella blinked at him as he stepped in with a shrug. Again, she wasn’t sure how to deal with so…many concerned people. Part of her was really starting to wish that Esme Cullen hadn’t called.

“I’m really fine,” Bella said, shifting a little. “I mean, everything cleared up really, really fast, and…yeah it was…really weird, but…”

Jacob shrugged.

“I told Dad that, but he didn’t care. He _hates_ that family, so yeah. Anyways, it’s a good excuse to hang out and catch up, I guess. I mean…we haven’t hung out in like…what…”

“Four years,” Bella said, and decided to just ignore the whole Cullen thing. “Oh, by the way, the truck still has a CD player in it.”

They made their way into the living room where Jacob thankfully ignored the Shelf of Bella, and plopped himself down,

“Yep,” he said, “I left it in. I don’t really need it. We’ve got a car with a CD player, and besides, I’m hoping the if I whine enough Dad will cave and let me get a bike.”

Bella gave him a skeptical look.

“It could happen,” he said defensively, crossing his arms, as Bella continued to look at him. “Oh, right, I’ve chatted with Embry and Quil, they’re all for doing something on Friday. I don’t know if you remember them much though.”

“I met them the last time that I came, I think,” Bella said. Honestly she didn’t remember much about them, only that they’d been bigger than her, but pretty nice.

“Great! Quil’s going to flirt with you though. He flirts with everyone, even though he’s got a girlfriend. Seriously, hit him. Everyone else does,” Jacob shrugged, as Bella lead the way into the living room and sat down. “Leah’s coming too.”

“Leah?” Bella had a brief memory of the girl.

She was a year older than Bella. They had hung out a few times since her dad, Henry Clearwater, was one of Charlie’s friends. She’d been nice enough, but clearly disappointed that Bella didn’t play any games. It wasn’t like Jacob’s sisters who had never been interested in the girl, it was more that Leah didn’t seem to think that they had much in common. Still, it might be nice to see a familiar face again. Particularly as she was kind of failing social interaction in high school.

“Yeah, she said that she remembers you, and she…eh…is glad that you’ve come here…”

Something in the way that Jacob said that told her that it was clearly an abbreviation of something else. Something nastier, but probably not directed at Bella personally. That was something that she remembered about Leah. She had a very low brain to mouth filter and didn’t particularly regret it.

“This sounds like it’ll be a lot of fun,” Bella said. “So, we’re playing GameCube?”

“Yeah, loser sits out,” Jacob grinned. “We’re mean like that. Anyways, what’s it like at Forks High? Did someone really lose their teeth over at the gym?”

“Apparently,” Bella said. “Though it was just a chip.”

“Heh, I knew Quil’s girlfriend was exaggerating.”

“Anyways, it’s pretty good, though…” she stopped, should she involve Jacob? Well, at least it would be another person. She wasn’t really fond of getting poor Charlie involved, and he _had_ been told to talk about it.

And it wasn’t like any of the Cullens, other than Edward, had been threatening. Just…weird.

“There’s some people there that…I don’t know…like…there was a girl that got hit in the face with a volleyball today, and she just stood there, looking around, until she seemed to realize that she was supposed to react. And then she fell over. And no one even reacts to this, and yesterday…

“So, was Volleyball Girl another Cullen?” Jacob asked.

He was a lot cannier than that grin gave him credit for.

“Yeah. It was…just weird I guess.”

“I can give you another weird tidbit about them: the Cullens aren’t allowed in La Push.”

Bella stared at him.

“What?”

“Seriously. I’m not even joking. You can look up the rules. They’re not allowed to set foot on our land. It’s really weird. Maybe Dr. Cullen’s great great grandpa was experimenting on people. I don’t know, but when they moved here about two years ago, there was this big tribal meeting for the elders that no one would tell anyone else about. I only know about it, ‘cause Dad’s on the council, and he basically told me to keep my mouth shut.”

“And they’re just…not allowed?”

“Nope. It’s annoying for a lot of members of the tribe too. Our doctor stinks, and Dr. Cullen’s part of some programs to help people without insurance, but we have to drive out here to do it. But Dad and the rest of the council aren’t budging no matter how much people complain that he’d probably be willing to have a day where he practiced in La Push. They don’t even give a reason just: they’re not allowed here.”

“Everything about that family is weird.”

“Pretty much yeah.”

Somehow, the fact that someone else found the whole thing as weird as she did was comforting. Still, she did wonder at little about how that family could be banned from an area. What had happened? She knew that it wasn’t any of her business, but honestly, she was curious. Besides, after everything that she was seeing, and what Jacob had told her about the Cullens being banned from La Push, there had to be an answer, right?

A family that was banned from tribal lands. A girl who was hit directly in the face and was just fine. A guy who had what looked like a break down in the middle of a classroom and no one cared.

Jacob seemed to catch on to Bella’s pensiveness, since he stood up suddenly, grin on his.

“So, Charlie has antennae, right? Wanna see if I can get those pay per view channels?”

* * *

 

As it turned out, Jacob couldn’t, but he managed to find Syfy, and both enjoyed an episode of _Ghost Hunters_. Or rather, both enjoyed pointing out all of the other things that it could have been. 

“It’s dust,” Bella said dully. “Or a car driving by.”

“Rachel mentioned that a lot of the voice crap is just our minds trying to make sense of random stuff that we hear,” Jacob offered.

It was so stupid, but neither of them were even attempting to watch something else. Maybe it was the fact that they were getting the chance to bond over mutual skepticism or something. Regardless, Bella was honestly slightly annoyed when the phone rang. Charlie didn’t have caller ID, so she had no choice but to answer, just in case it was actually important.

“Hello?” Bella asked.

“Bella!” Charlie’s voice sounded relieved. “I’m glad that you’re home safe. Is Jacob there?”

“Er…yes,” Bella said, looking over at Jacob who was still watching TV. “Is something wrong?”

“…there’s been another murder. This time, it’s in my jurisdiction.”

Something cold and unpleasant settled into Bella’s stomach.

“You mean like…with the blood and everything?” Bella asked.

“We’re pretty certain.”

Her silence must have shown her understanding of the situation, since Charlie cleared his throat again.

“I…don’t think that I’m going to be home for a while. I wanted to make sure that you knew. I have some money in the cookie jar on top of the fridge, and you and Jacob are welcome to order a pizza. Make sure though that you call Billy, and tell him what’s going on.”

“Sure…Dad… um…” Bella struggled for the words and someone on the other end was speaking in a soft voice.

“Hey, Bella, I need to go. Dr. Cullen is here. I’ll call you if I’m going to be later than eight.”

“Thanks, and…I really hope you catch him, Dad,” Bella said.

Bella hung up the phone, shivering a little. There was a murderer in Forks. Murders…they didn’t happen in small towns, though. Some part of her always saw them in big cities like LA or somewhere else. Not sleepy little towns where everyone knew one another. Oh, Renee had watched some Agatha Christies, but even then, it seemed that it always was involved with something else. Particularly not when the killings were moving.

Was this a serial killer? She was sure that the police were wondering the same thing.

“So, what’s up?” Jacob asked, he’d abandoned his place by the TV and was looking over at her curiously.

“Dad called. He said that there was another murder.”

Jacob gave a low whistle.

“Oh boy. I’m going to need to call my dad.”

Bella nodded as Jacob grabbed the phone, and she looked over towards the TV. It was stupid and it was paranoid, but that didn’t stop her from closing all the windows and making sure that everything was locked down. As such closed the blinds, she could have sworn that she saw something move in the yard. Instantly, she was reminded of the first night, and she squinted out into the dark, trying to see what it was that had moved.

It had to be just a deer…or a bear… Suddenly, even a bear sounded better than the other thing that it could be, but, try as she might, there didn’t seem to be anything there. But that didn’t stop the feeling that something, somewhere, was watching her.

Jacob’s hand on her shoulder caused Bella to squeak slightly, and whip around. Jacob held up both hands but he wasn’t laughing.

“Did you…” Bella shook her head. “Alright…so, looks like I’m sticking around until Quil gets done, and Lauren’s parents don’t even have a curfew or anything. So…er…you want to keep watching this or find something else?”

With a final look outside, and a shiver, Bella took a breath.

“Let’s get a pizza and keep going. I’d rather watch people scare themselves than…anything else right now.”

* * *

 

True to Charlie’s word, he called around eight, telling her that he wasn’t going to be coming back until late. That was about when Jacob went home, so Bella was left to the house. 

Normally, Bella kind of liked to be alone. There was something nice and quiet about it. She could have her own thoughts, be as loud as she wanted and basically do what she pleased for a while. But that night, she couldn’t do much other than lock down everything and scare herself by researching serial killers and the murders that were going on around her.

And scare herself she did. As she learned about the lured details, innocent people brutally murdered for no reason, about mocking letters sent to worried police officers, about murder castles and urban legends. Suddenly, the calm silence of the house was oppressive. Bella suddenly found that she missed the sound of the wind back home. Now, she couldn’t hear anything, and no matter how much she thought about the fact that the statistical probability for her being attacked in her house when the door was locked was really low, the irrational fear kept her up, researching.

The information about the murders wasn’t much better. It had started in Canada, when some family who was staying in a cabin over Christmas hadn’t returned. Relatives had called the police, and they’d found them dead. Given the wounds, they’d thought that it had been some kind of animal that had left them for later, but then it had happened again. So far it was in a secluded area, usually with hikers or something, but…now it was in a city. So far, none of the small news sites that reported around Forks had mentioned anything, but that was only a matter of time.

She’d already resolved not to tell Renee about this. She would freak out and tell Charlie to send her home, and then things would just be awkward and confusing. Her new found fear wasn’t going to change that. Besides...

The door opened below her, and Bella all but ran to see Charlie as he stepped in. He looked rather grey as he shut the door, but a relieved smile was on his face when she came down.

“What happened?” she asked.

Charlie shook his head. “It’s not pretty. Old Bud Hirsch was walking his dog, around four. When the dog ran home without him, looking scared out of its mind, his wife knew that there was something wrong. She called the police, and we went looking for him. We found him a little off the path, looked like he was dragged…” he shook his head.

“What’s worse…we’re going to have to ask around. See if anyone wasn’t where they were supposed to be or was where they weren’t supposed to be,” Charlie sighed. “I hate murders.”

At first, Bella didn’t understand, but then realized that Forks was a small town. Charlie likely knew, at least by sight, most of the people there.

“But…if it started in Canada…” Bella muttered.

“We’re close to the border,” Charlie sighed. “It’s possible that someone could claim to have been on a hunting trip or have been sick and been going up there infrequently. I’ll have to investigate anyone who’s had any trips around that time.”

Something struck a cord. People who’d been absent a lot.

Hadn’t Jessica mentioned something about Edward being absent _again_?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it for now. Thanks so much for reading! Hopefully, the next chapter comes a little faster.
> 
> Additional Notes:
> 
> Q’wati: A Quileute hero figure who might or might not have been a god. He's also called "The Transformer". He's the one who first changed wolves into people, claiming that since they mate for life, humans must do the same. Most of the stories about him are a little scattered, but it seems that he was a very important figure in the past.


	4. Predictions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A story Billy tells leaves Bella unsure, Alice gives Bella a warning, and Bella makes a gruesome discovery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally got this out. 
> 
> So, things are about to get a little bit darker from here on out. So, thanks for your patience, and I hope that you enjoy!

The rest of the week passed quickly. Bella was quickly being assimilated into the fabric of life in Forks. She met with Mike, Jessica, Eric and sometimes Tylor at the Hill of Beans, chatted with Ben, or rather they chatted with Ben and she nodded and smiled, and then would head to school.

Classes were a mix between dull and sometimes confusing, but within the span of a few days, curious looks were over, and it seemed that Forks High had accepted her as one of their own, even if she was probably going to be the ‘new girl’ for a while just because most people didn’t talk to her.

While she didn’t overly want to admit it, she was still keeping an eye out for Edward Cullen, but after the terrifying incident in biology, he seemed to have dropped off the planet. The rest of them, with the exception of Alice, were avoiding her.

Alice Cullen didn’t seem to understand that her brother had done something that normally families just tried to pretend never ever happened. She followed her around, chatting and trying to get her to agree to a time to go shopping together, because somehow, that would cement their friendship. While she couldn’t say that she disliked Alice, Bella wasn’t sure just how much she really wanted to do with that family, or if Alice really was being put up to it, or at least encouraged, by someone else.

By the time that Friday had arrived, Bella was more or less settling into a routine, and she was glad of it. While Forks was overcast most days, when the sun did come out, it was all the more precious, and, to be fair, the landscape was really beautiful in the sunlight. With a life and vibrancy, that Arizona had never had.

Though, she still missed how, after the rain, the desert was always in bloom, brought to life just for a little bit.

Charlie, while he was home at a decent time every night, was showing signs of being overworked. His eyes were getting dark, and there was a stress line on his forehead that she didn’t realize was there before. Still, he always tried to smile and act like things were fine. Bella, honestly wasn’t sure how to respond to it. With Renee, she’d always been in the role of the advisor, the close friend that Renee shared everything with, suddenly being with Charlie, who clearly saw her as a child who needed to be spared the gory details and the stress of his job was strange, and it made her feel helpless.

She had started cooking when she got home, not because Charlie needed it, but because it was at least doing _something_ for him.

Friday night was the first time since she’d arrived that Bella left Forks taking the two lane highway down towards La Push. While it had been overcast most of the day, the stars were out by the time that she’d pulled into the brightly lit house where Jacob lived. There were no other cars there, but Bella assumed that the others had just walked.

Jacob answered the door after a few knocks with a big grin on his face.

“Alright, looks like everyone’s here!” he said, leaded into through the small, cozy house into the living room, which was a mess of mismatched chairs and a coffee table that Bella vaguely remembered since it still bore some paint stains that she might or might not have been responsible for. A TV stood in one corner which two boys and a girl were already playing (loudly).

“So, Dad’s out at a council meeting,” Jacob said. “So as long as we don’t blow up the house, we’re golden.”

“Dude, your dad will probably magically know if we do anything he doesn’t like,” one of the two, who Bella vaguely remembered as Embry, said, looking over his shoulder. “Oh, hey, Bella.”

Bella raised one hand, as the other two turned. Quil grinned and winked, and the other girl, just smirked slightly.

“So, if you don’t remember, this is Bella, Bella that’s Embry, Quil and Leah.”

“Glad to see you finally ditched your mom and came to stay with Charlie,” Leah said.

“Um…thanks..?” Bella said, but Leah had already turned away, focusing on controlling Bowser to crash forwards and start breathing fire.

“Eat it, Yoshi!” Quil yelled laughing as the small green dinosaur fell of the cliff and Embry let out a cry of angry despair.

Bella sat down, watching as the others fought. She was surprised when the controller was suddenly passed to her by Embry, who looked like he was sulking.

“Slaughter all of them,” he grumbled as Bella unsteadily chose Pikachu.

* * *

 

Bella was lousy at videogames, but the only one who said much was Leah. Having never played though, she thought that she was doing pretty good for herself. After all, she even managed to beat Leah at one point, causing the girl to launch into a stream of swear words and have to hand the controller to Jacob when she lost.

In the end though, they decided to play something else. Something that would let them all play. Something that her mother would have had an aneurysm if she knew that Bella was doing it, since, only nerds and weirdos (in Renee’s mind) would play it.

Dungeons and Dragons.

“Alright, ya’ll come over and check this out!” Jacob said, cracking his knuckles. “I cast my ‘create spell’ to make the new spell ‘persona’ on the door so that when the necromancer opens it, he'll think we're friends.”

He rolled the dice, blinking at the thirty that had appeared.

“Ok, so the spell doesn’t backfire, but it’s going to do something…odd,” Embry, who was acting as DM, said and rolled the dice. “So apparently, you cast the spell 'fursona’. The door is not a valid target, so it goes through the door and hits…” he rolled his dice again and blinked, “the necromancer.”

Bella stopped trying to think about what her sun summoner could do and looked up.

“Well this escalated quickly,” she said, deadpan as Leah started cracking up.

“I didn’t do it on purpose!” Jacob protested.

“A likely story. What did he turn into?”

“My Orc objects that that’s physically impossible! This world isn't even build to have-”

“Dude, you’re metagaming. Your Orc has the intelligence of grass,” Embry said.

“Oh, er. The Orc laughs uproariously at this new development,” Quil shrugged.

This was the weirdest thing that Bella had ever done, and she was enjoying herself tremendously. Cynthia the Sun Summoner was a Lawful Good sorceress who Leah had played for a few campaigns and gotten bored with because she was ‘too much of a goody goody’, but Bella was enjoying playing her a lot.

Mostly because with a bunch of Chaotic Good and Neutral loose cannons, she was essentially the voice of reason now.

“Ok, we should probably just let Nightshade pick the lock like she said,” Bella said, looking at Leah. “And then apologize to the necromancer.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose!”

“Dude, it doesn’t matter. You’ve still got to take responsibility.” Leah was still smirking. “I don't care if he's an evil necromancer who's been trying to take over the world. Apologize for turning him into an anthropomorphic animal so that we can beat him up.”

"What if he likes it?"

The conversation was quickly turning into a strange conversation about things that Bella had only really learned existed that night when Billy opened the door and came in. It looked a little tired, but happy enough to see the kids.

He glanced at the group with a smile, and nodded at Bella.

“Good to see that you could make it. Be sure not to let this lot corrupt you too bad,” he said.

“She’s fine. Bella’s our voice of reason now,” Jacob called.

“Good, because you all need one!” Billy wheeled back, shaking his head but smiling.

“How was the meeting?” Embry asked, looking at Billy with interest.

“Unproductive. Everyone’s up in arms about the killings, our police are sitting on their hands about helping Charlie since they don’t have jurisdiction, despite the fact, that I’m pretty sure Charlie could give them permission to help and we’re not that far from Forks. They’re asking everyone to not go out at night alone, but that’s not going to help much. The two hikers were together when they were killed.”

“Honestly, the whole thing sounds like one of those ‘Cold Ones’ stories that you used to tell us about,” Quil grumbled, ignoring as Jacob rolled his eyes.

“Cold Ones?” Bella asked.

She’d never really paid that much attention to Native American folklore in the past, but now that she seemed to have been all but instantly accepted into Jacob’s group, she might want to brush up.

Billy smiled at her, but the smile had a bit of an edge to it as he looked over at the others gathered around.

“You know, it’s been a long time since I’ve told that story…” the said thoughtfully.

Jacob groaned.

“Oh, hush,” Billy said. “Besides, it’s late. Scary stores are supposed to happen at night by the campfire.  I’ll light up the fireplace. Then you can tell one another scary stories that you found on the internet when you thought that no one was watching.”

“Alright. Or some of the better ones. The Cold Ones isn’t that good,” Leah shrugged. “I always liked the Skinwalker better.”

“Well, that’s cause it’s creepy,” Quil rolled his eyes. “And you’re horrifying. How did Sam even get your interest.”

“He’s a lucky man, and he knows it.”

Billy just shook his head as he brought some wood and brought it into the fireplace, turning out the lights. Bella blinked as the room was suddenly plunged into darkness, and the cozy old furniture and the wood paneled walls that seemed to have survived from the seventies suddenly seemed a whole lot more ominous than they had in the light.

The others took seats in the couches, Jacob looking kind of annoyed, but the others seemed amused enough. Billy Black was sitting, learning forwards in his wheelchair and looking at the fire, almost lost in thought.

“This happened long ago, when the white man had just come to our land. Our first contact with them was as complex as any of our neighbors. There were those whom we took as slaves, and those who we traded peacefully with, but we were unprepared when a new kind of white man came to our shores. A kind that had followed the traders, missionaries and soldiers with far more sinister intent than any of them ever dreamed of.

“The Cold Ones followed the white man on his ships, and, knowing that in those days, we had no way to warn one another of the threat, they preyed on us freely. They focused on our hunting parties, our children who played alone in the woods, our women who went to gather, and soon, we huddled in our villages, terrified that soon, our village would vanish. It was then that our elders, fearful that we would be killed off, sought help from the supernatural.

“They initially sought help from Q’wati, who had, in ages past, been our hero and who had given us the gift of our humanity. But only Bayaq, who the white man called “Raven”, answered us.

“Now Bayaq is a trickster. He is lazy, greedy, and often came to the outskirts of our camps, looking for food that had been ignored so that he could steal it. At the same time, he loved humanity and was powerful in his own right. On a night when some of the last of our warriors decided to hold a final stand, to attempt to defeat this wicked monster, he appeared to them in human form.

“‘What would you give for the ability to defeat this invader?’ Bayaq asked the leader of these men.

“This man did not hesitate, but instantly responded. ‘Everything I have, including my own life.’

“Bayaq nodded in response.

“’I can give you the power to drive back this monster, but in return, you will have to give up the gift that Q’wati gave to you. When the monster is near, you will return to the form that your people originally were, but I will preserve your will and your mind so that you will never threaten those dear to you. However, this gift, should you agree, will never leave your families, and they will be forced to fight should these creatures return. They and you will give up your humanity until the end of this current world.’

“It was rare for the trickster to be so forthright, and the men suspected a trap, but in the end, and after much debate, they agreed.

“Suddenly, their bodies shifted to those of enormous wolves. Fearsome and silent, they sped through the night, while before the night had been black and they had no lead on where to find the creatures, now the forest was like daylight, and they smelt such a stench of decay that they were lead to the camp where the Cold Ones approached.

“They were paler than any of the white man could have been, and no heat came from their bodies, just as no breath came from their mouths. Their dead eyes flashed with eerie light, and the stench of death and decay followed them, but the new wolves felt no fear. Rather, they leapt to attack.

“Before, arrows and swords had had no effect on the Cold Ones, now, teeth and claws ripped through them. The leader of the new pack felled the leader of the Cold Ones, and the others, cowards now that something had the power to oppose them, fled in terror.

“With the Cold Ones gone, the wolves assumed their human form, and, remembering, Bayaq’s words, they taught their sons that one day, should the monsters return, they would be called on to defeat them and protect their tribe.

“As for the Cold Ones…” Billy stopped. “Some say they returned across the sea, but others know that they went south, to tribes that were already weakened from battles with the white man, preying off of them. As the white man used trickery and deceit to kill, they used the white man until the world changed again, and they would be noticed. So now they wait in the dark places of the world, for the day when their evil is able to run rampant again.

“But that was not the last that our tribe say of the Cold Ones. Centuries later, a man came to us, reeking of death, but of a different kind. He stood at the boundary of our land, and when our warriors, suddenly wolves, came to meet him, the man spoke of peace. He claimed that he had broken with the other Cold Ones, and that he sought out a treaty with us, in order to live and hunt animals in peace.

“Suspicious, our warriors, agreed, but on the condition that he never set foot on our land, and warned him that if he harmed those white men who we now considered our friends or crossed our boundaries, we would hunt and kill him as we would any other. This man comes and goes, sometimes with others, sometimes alone, but we always warn our children to never trust the creatures in human skin, whose skin is paler than the white man, and whose eyes are bright. For they are monsters who feed on the blood of their prey, and do not have even a shred of humanity within them.”

Bella considered herself a pretty skeptical person, yet she found herself suppressing a kind of shudder as the story ended. There was something in the way that Billy told it, how he continued looking at the fire, as if remembering. And maybe he was. Maybe he was remembering when the story was told to him.

“So that peaceful one is still out there?” Bella asked.

“Yes, some of the stories say that one day, he returned with others that he had swayed to his side, but, personally, that’s the part of the story I always set the least amount of faith in,” Billy said. “Besides, it was added much later, probably by some idiot who thought that the real one was too scary or something. Still, I tell it, since that’s the way that it was told to me.”

“You know,” Leah said softly. “It does kind of sound like what’s been going on though, doesn’t it? With the murders and all?”

“You think that monsters killed them?” Jacob asked, clear skepticism in his voice.

“Metaphorically,” Leah shrugged. “Folklore always is supposed to have a grain of truth to it, right? So maybe one of the people who came here from France or someone who came from England was a serial killer before they knew what those were.”

It did sound like something that could be, but somehow, something in her still felt on edge from the story. Maybe it was just that it was so similar to what was going.

Or maybe it was the fact that, in addition to the stories, the Cullens were all so pale. And Jasper’s bright eyes…

This was completely ridiculous. She was comparing a story about the undead to something that was really happening. What was wrong with her?

“But that’s why the Cullens aren’t allowed on our land, right?” Embry suddenly asked. “Jacob mentioned something about that.”

“Really, I thought it was just because they were weird,” Quil muttered. “From Lauren’s stories they just…randomly will leave on ‘family bonding’ trips or something, and they have special permission from the school to do it as long as they keep their grades up. I’m not sure how that works.”

“Money,” Leah said. “An awful lot of money.”

“Honestly, I don’t think that money should be able to do that either…” Bella said.

“That’s because you’re poor like us,” Leah smirked.

“At any rate, let’s have another story, and then Bella should probably get ready to head home. Just in case, I’ve got a map with the way to Forks marked. I know that you came here, but that was daylight, and these roads can look like completely different places by headlights.”

Bella did note that he never answered Embry’s question.

 

* * *

                                                                                                                                                                       

Maybe it was the story that Billy had told, or the other one (Embry might have been the most mild of Jacob’s friends but he could tell some really creepy stories) that night, but Bella ended up driving back. She supposed that they had enjoyed her reaction. After all, all of them had grown up with these stories, and Renee had hated horror, so she hadn’t ever heard so much as the “Golden Arm” until Girl Scout Camp when she was about twelve.

It might have also been the fact that, while Bella had driven at night, it had always been in the desert. While things were cramped in Phoenix, there was something about her headlights reflecting the trunks of trees passing by that put her in mind of seeing some kind of figure suddenly standing in the trees or in the road.

It was kind of silly since she’d driven in the desert before, and the wide, empty spaces could be just as eerie as the woods. But, somehow, she found herself more paranoid than usual. It was probably everything involving the ghost stories.

She was being such a superstitious little baby. Well, she supposed that this was the first time that she’d really been able to listen to stories like this. Maybe Renee was right, and this was just too scary for her. She wasn’t sure.

Bella pulled into the driveway, noting that the light was on, waiting for her. She hoped that, Charlie wasn’t waiting up for her or anything. She knew that Renee would, particularly if she’d forgotten that Bella was going to go somewhere. Bella took a deep breath, got out of the car and headed into the house, preparing for something unpleasant.

Charlie was sitting on the couch watching the local news as she stepped in. He turned, smiling a little. This wasn’t at all what she’d thought that she was going to be facing.

“So, how’d it go?” he asked. “Did they rope you into some kind of Dungeons and Dragons thing?”

“Er…yeah,” Bella said, feeling herself flush slightly.

“Billy complains about it sometimes, but as far as I’m concerned, they found something that they liked that didn’t mean that someone was going to have to call me or Declay. He’s the Chief for La Push. You’ll probably meet him.”

“Oh,” Bella wasn’t sure how to deal with this, but she sat down, looking at the story, which was about some ice fishing thing that was coming up.

“I’m not waiting up for you,” Charlie said suddenly. “I just couldn’t sleep.”

“It…it’s ok if you were,” Bella muttered. “Re- Mom would sometimes wait up for me, when it got too late. Besides, everything that’s happening has got me on edge at least. Mr. Black’s story even managed to scare me a little.”

“You mean that Cold Ones story? That’s Billy’s favorite. He’s told it to me a few times. It’s pretty creepy, honestly. I’m glad he told it to you.”

“What do you mean?”

“He doesn’t tell that story to random tourists,” Charlie shrugged. “Though I expect that Jacob is sick and tired of hearing the same story time and time again.”

Bella smiled a little. It was kind of hard to be freaked out when she was standing in Charlie’s perfectly ordinary living room, looking at the news and away from anything even remotely supernatural.

“It’s a creepy story,” Bella said, “but I guess everything can get dull after a while. It was…fun though.”

She didn’t really want to mention to him that she rarely actually went out and did things with people her own age, but Charlie seemed to understand, since he smiled and nodded a little.

“Welp, I’m going to keep watching, and then I might try to sleep again.”

“If…if you can’t sleep, I know that PBS has Bob Ross on late usually. That always puts me to sleep.” Bella said.

It wasn’t that it was dull, it was just…soothing.

Charlie laughed.

“That’s not one I’ve tried before,” he said, shaking his head. “I might be needing it more and more after all of this.”

“Case isn’t going well?”

“There’s nothing. It looks like an animal, but so far there’s been no trail, and the bite marks appear to be…human,” Charlie shook his head. “It’s not as if I have much help either. We’re a pretty small department. We don’t even have a doctor to do an autopsy. Thankfully, Dr. Cullen’s been happy to fill in for us.”

The Cullens again.

Bella didn’t want to mention her growing suspicions to Charlie, but if Edward was the one who was doing this, than it was possible that the Cullens might be covering up for him, and a doctor would be the perfect role to do so. Still, she didn’t know these people, had no evidence, and had a personal thing against Edward. While she knew that Charlie would listen, even she thought that the whole thing sounded like it was wrong.

“Well…Goodnight, Dad,” Bella said, that word was coming easier at least. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Charlie nodded, turned back to the TV, and even had the decency to wait a long enough time so that he didn’t sound like he had really been waiting up for her to go up to bed. However, while Bella closed her door, she didn’t head to bed.

She stayed up for a while, researching the Cold Ones.

 

* * *

 

 

It was surprising how little information even Wikipedia had on the things. There was a small page, but only a note that while they were supposed to be monsters, most of the Quileute nation didn’t like to talk about it with people who weren’t themselves part of a tribe.

It was strange to think that, somehow, Bella was trusted by Billy, or that he had thought that she needed to know the story. Or maybe that, as Charlie’s daughter, it was just sort of thought that she and Jacob would always be friends. She found that she really liked that idea, even if she wasn’t sure what that meant.

The weekend passed at a pleasant rate. The sun came out, and Bella had the time to hang out with Jessica, Mike, Eric, Ben and Angela at Hill of Beans, kept a lively email conversation up with Jacob, and even exchanged pleasantries with Leah, Quil and Embry. Somehow, it seemed that her social life in Forks had managed to be more lively than in the city.

Usually, all she did was sit and do homework, or maybe read. She almost hadn’t noticed that Renee hadn’t send her anything that weekend. Almost.

On Monday morning, Bella woke to find that during the night, snow had fallen, and about two inches were covering the ground. Now, Bella had seen snow before, but that was mostly in the mountains. Once it had gotten cold enough so that during a morning, she’d gotten the strange experience of seeing snow on a cactus.

This was different. It was very cold, very wet, and looked very hard to drive in. At breakfast, she kept looking out the window.

“Do you think that school will be out today?” Bella asked.

If Phoenix, the city would have shut down for this, and she knew that Forks, while getting a lot of rain, didn’t get that much in the way of snow. Maybe she’d get lucky.

“For this? Nah, this is too small for anything like that,” Charlie shook his head, but then paused. “This is your first time driving in the snow isn’t it?”

“Yeah…”

“They’ll have plowed out the main road, so you shouldn’t worry too much, and just drive a little slower than usual if you don’t feel comfortable,” Charlie smiled. “I’d offer you a ride, but I expect that you don’t want to be brought to school in a cruiser.”

Bella laughed a little.

“I’ll have to face this sooner or later. Might as well be now,” she said.

And, honestly, she might as well. Snow was going to be a reality now. She was going to put her big girl pants on and deal with her life. Besides, she’d never seen it before. It might be different. Lots of movies tried to make snow into something romantic, though she’d always thought that the idea of cuddling with someone with the nice warm fire while the nasty wet snow fell _outside_ was a lot better.

Outside, the snow had fallen into a light, fluffy layer on the ground, and the first, stupid, thought in her head was that, rather than being like the big puffy flakes that she’d seen in Christmas movies, on the ground, snow…kind of looked like the tips of thousands of Q-tips poking up at her.

TV lied. Go figure.

She nearly killed herself tripping on the ice, but managed to catch herself in time. Snow also apparently meant ice. Not something that she was used to dealing with either.

At the car, Bella noticed with surprise that Charlie had already put snow chains on the truck. She turned around, noting that, while he hadn’t mentioned it, he was looking out the window. She waved at him, smiling a little before getting into her car and noting the weird crunching noise that snow made when you drove in it. That, at the very least, managed to sound like the movies.

She stopped by Hill of Beans, smiling at the sight of the others. The expression was becoming less and less of a reflex and more of a real thing.

“Bella!” Angela said, taking a sip from her latte, but then lowering her voice so that no one else in the line could hear her. “Ben just told me that he was going to have a salted caramel muffins tomorrow. There aren’t that many, and they’re really, really good, so we’re going to come by right before the store opens to get some.”

She smiled in a slightly guilty way.

“But don’t tell anyone else. I’m going to text Mike, Jess and Erik, but no one else.”

Bella nodded, smiling a little.

“Don’t worry, I won’t.”

Mostly because it would probably get Ben into a lot of trouble to be opening up early just so that his friends could get some muffins. Already, Ben had gotten used to her being there, and known what she was going to order, not that vanilla lattes were all that interesting or original, he’d figured out that she liked them sweet. She supposed it was an advantage to a school small enough so that everyone really did know everyone else.

Angela grinned.

“See you in five minutes!”

That was all that it really took to get from the school to the shop, with decent parking. Even with the added problem of snow. Which the others seemed to be relishing in. Even though it was a little before the bell rang, Mike and Erik were having a snowball fight with Jessica and some other girls that Bella didn’t know too well.

Mike waved to her grinning, and before Bella could raise her hands, Erik sent a snowball flying at her. Bella jumped back, falling into the snow on the other side of the walk, but the ball did manage to soar over her head.

It wasn’t as cold or wet as she’d thought that it was going to be.

“Come on, Bella!” Jessica yelled, waving her behind one of the cars.

Bella managed to get to her feet, and was between wanting to run for the doors or for the fort when the bell rang. Mike swore and Jessica scowled.

“Later.”

Bella was actually pretty relived as she made her way up the stairs, but stopped when she saw the figure of Alice waiting for her. She had her hands in her expensive looking jeans pocket, and was giving her a worried look.

“Er…Alice?” Bella asked.

“I’m so glad that I caught you. I wanted to catch you for lunch, but you don’t usually eat with us yet, and Jasper keeps telling me that I can’t force things, but I really need to talk to you, and it really can’t wait until this weekend when we go shopping, and if I call you, it will be weird since…”

She was going to continue on without so much as pausing for a breath, but Bella held up her hands.

“Alice, what are you talking about.”

“You can’t go to that shop tomorrow. You have to just go to school,” Alice said, eyes very wide.

It made her doll-like features all the more doll like.

First of all, how to Alice know about the coffee shop? Alice and Angela weren’t close. None of the Cullens seemed all that close with anyone other than themselves. Maybe she’d overheard something. After all, Alice was tiny, it would have been easy to miss her, and from some rumors she’d heard around the school, the girl had eagle ears. Second of all, what was she talking about?

Something in Bella’s face must have shown her thoughts since Alice shook her head.

“I’m not joking. I mean it. Please, please, please don’t go. If you go something really bad is going to happen.”

Right.

“Er…I’ll remember that, Alice,” Bella said.

She wasn’t sure how to refuse the girl. It was one thing when it was Edward Cullen being creepy, it was something else when it was little Alice who clearly wasn’t…well…normal, and was trying so hard to be friendly.

“Ok,” Alice said, relief clear on her face. “And eat with us sometime! It’ll be fun!”

“Please?” a new voice said.

Bella turned to notice the blonde girl who was walking up the stairs. She was one of the Cullen’s obviously. The blonde girl. Up close she was…well…stunning. Kind of like a statue. Her flawless pale skill and calm expression seemed like they would have been at home on a Roman Venus rather than on a normal high schooler, particularly one who had crossed her arms and was staring at both of them through her dull blue eyes. Like the rest of the family, she was dressed well, with a long brown coat that looked like it would have been at home at some Parisian Café.

“Seriously. I’ll pay you. Money. I don’t care. All Alice has been talking about has been when you two are finally going to be besties,” the girl said.

“That’s not true!” Alice said, looking away. “I…asked if you think that we could…you know…”

“Not outside a movie,” the blonde said.

“But it would just be one song…”

The girl just shook her head.

“It had to be when Jasper was feeling ill,” she muttered, shaking her head. “Come on, Alice, we’re starting to block traffic. I’ll play Karaoke Revolution with you when we get back. Let’s see if we can team up and beat Edward.”

Alice grinned, and turned to Bella.

“See you! I’m so glad you’re going to take by advice.”

The girl stopped as Bella started to edge away, and Alice went down her hall, and Bella could hear her footsteps (the heels of the girl’s leather boots clicked slightly) as she rushed up behind her.

“Alice gave you advice?” the girl’s voice, which had before been either bored or faintly amused had an edge to it. It almost sounded…worried.

“Er…yeah, she said to avoid the coffee shop tomorrow.”

The girl sighed.

“Hey…Bella, right?” she said, walking beside her for a moment and giving her a hard look. “I’ll give you some advice since you’re new: listen to Alice.”

And with that, she turned abruptly, blonde hair cascading around her as she rushed off to join the large Cullen who she didn’t know. That was right. They were all dating. Bella paused for a moment, but sense, and a warning bell, brought her back to reality, and Bella went scurrying to first period.

 

* * *

 

 

It went without saying that Bella didn’t eat with Alice and everyone at lunch. The problem was that Mike, Jessica and Angela didn’t seem to be there either. While Forks High was pretty lenient, and tended to allow students to get lunch out, so far she hadn’t seen many people taking the school up on it. Maybe it was just the fact that unless you wanted late coffee, there wasn’t anything there worth going out for and anything that was too far away.

Actually it seemed that a lot of people were absent. As she passed by the library, which happened to be on the first floor, a large snowball hit the window, making her jump and stumble back. Bella stepped to the window, seeing that Mike, Jess, Eric and Angela had decided to resume their snowball fight.

Some part of her wanted to go out and join them, but she was too clumsy, too unused to actually doing this and…they hadn’t invited her. While practically, she knew that she would be able to just walk out there and join them…

Some part of her just couldn’t. They were all friends, and had been for the majority of their lives. She was an outsider. One who they might like and welcome, but…still not really one of them, and when push came to shove, she wasn’t part of the group.

She was surprised by how unhappy that made her.

Maybe if she was more like her mother. If she was bubbly and happy and outgoing and good at things, maybe then this wouldn’t be a problem. But she wasn’t. She was the kind of quiet, mousy girl who more or less faded away into the background. She didn’t really have it in her to be outgoing and cheerful. She was lucky, this time around, to be on the outskirts of a friendship.

Something moved by the trees on the other side of the school, and Bella squinted a little until she realized that there was a human figure standing in the tries, watching the snowball fight.

It was Edward Cullen. Edward stood, watching, completely still, as Bella’s friends pelted one another with snowballs. He was facing the group, and while she couldn’t see where he was fully looking, it had to be them. He didn’t seem to be making any moves towards them, but the complete stillness with which he was standing almost made it look like some kind of vaguely unsettling painting.

Why was he there? She was sure that his family was holding him back from attending, but was he just wandering around the woods?

The bell rang, and Jessica, Mike, Eric and Angela ran in through a door close to her.

“Hey Bella,” Mike said, grinning when he saw her. “We were looking for you.”

Bella smiled a little, trying to keep the look of sheer disbelief from her face. Or the slight worry. What had Edward Cullen been doing there? Why had he been watching them? Some part of her wondered if somehow, he was disappointed that there were too many of them for him to kill. But she couldn’t think like that. She had no proof. Nothing other than the fact that Edward scared her. Every weird, or creepy person wasn’t a murderer.

“Too bad I missed you,” she said, looking around at the others.

The seemed a little apologetic.

“Don’t worry about it too much though,” Bella said, “I would have basically just been a walking target most of the time.”

“Yeah, but there should be at least a few more snow storms,” Jessica said as they started to head to class. “Hopefully, one of them will be on a weekend.”

Honestly, Bella was pretty sure that she’d appreciate the snow a little more from inside her nice warn room, but she wasn’t complaining about the chance to do something with the others. So, she nodded, smiling a little, but she paused to look out the window again as she and Mike headed towards the biology lab.

Edward was gone, as if maybe she’d imagined him standing there.

But she hadn’t, and she knew it.

During biology, rather than faithfully trying to record everything that Mr. Banner was saying, Bella drew out a small list, trying to get her thoughts in order, and hoping that he wasn’t going to start walking around the classroom, which she noticed that he would do every so often.

But Mr. Banner was so big on being objective and careful, and making sure that you didn’t just make assumptions, and, well, she’d been in AP, and they’d talked about the phases of a cell, so…

_Strange Things About Forks (and La Push)_

_-No one noticed Edward in Bio_

_-No one noticed Jasper_

_-Alice_

_-The Cold Ones story_

_-Jacob says that the Cullens aren’t allowed in La Push_

_-The murders_

_-The Cullens are always out and no one cares._

She was starting to see a trend to this list. In the end, Forks and La Push were normal little towns. Other than the Cullens. Maybe that was why the town just ignored them. They were strange, but it was them, not anyone else, and, no matter what Renee had said about Forks when she’d had a little too much, which was about the only time that she ever really bought up Charlie, the people there had been pretty nice so far.

“Miss Swan, as you appear to be paying attention, can you tell me the difference between Anaphase and Metaphase.

“Metaphase is when the chromosomes are lining up with one another and Anaphase is when the cell is dividing,” Bella said quickly, trying to make sure that she didn’t look like he’d started her out of her own thoughts.

“Very nice. Next time try to pay a little more attention to the board and not just what I’m saying,” Mr. Banner said, and continued with his lecture.

She quietly started balling the list up in her fist.

 

* * *

 

 

Charlie wasn’t there when Bella got home, and while he’d mentioned something about ordering something when they got home, she wanted to do something, and, rather than reading Faulkner and trying to get invested, she decided to make spaghetti and pretend that she was doing something that was almost useful.

Besides, she was used to cooking for herself or another person, and it was nice to be able to do it again.

When he did come home, Charlie looked at her with surprise.

“Oh, you didn’t have to…” Charlie said, looking a little sheepish. “I did forget to pick something up, but, we could have gone out… We haven’t since you got here after all.”

Bella smiled a little.

“It’s fine, Dad,” she said. That word was coming more and more naturally. “I wanted to be able to help anyways. You’ve been looking tired.”

“That obvious?” Charlie asked, but then he shook his head. “There hasn’t been anything new, and it’s possible that they’ve moved on. If that’s the case then they’re probably moving to Seattle or some other big city. If that’s the case, then I’ll need to send them the files on what we’ve got, and help.”

He was probably hoping for that one. As bad as she felt about it, she kind of understood why. At least an outsider of the town wasn’t someone who Charlie had gone to community barbeques with, or who he had spoken to at school, or who he had seen when he’d gone to the diner. It was still terrible, but it wasn’t the terrible feeling of knowing someone who had killed another friend.

Besides, as terrible as it was, it also meant that no one who he knew would be killed any more.

And maybe the Seattle police would be more used to gruesome crimes than a small town cop in Forks.

“Regardless, thank you,” Charlie said. “Don’t worry, I’ll set the table and clean up.”

That was also something that she was used to. Renee, when she had come home, had eaten and expected Bella to be the one to cook and clean and offer any advice with bills that Renee had. Charlie seemed to see dinners as a sort of cooperative thing. He would cook, and she would set and clean, or, apparently, she would cook and he would set things up and clean.

Dinner was getting more comfortable between them though. The silence was less awkward and more of two people who didn’t talk much, but enjoyed one another’s company.

“Oh,” Bella said. “Angela said that the Hill of Beans is going to have a…caramel cupcake that’s really popular, so I’m going to be heading out early.”

Charlie snorted and shook his head.

“I’m glad that you’ve got friends,” he said. “I just forget the things that are important sometimes.” J

He almost sounded wistful.

“Well, as long as you’re there, and you don’t go and decide to take the extra time to go exploring the Washington forest while you’ve got free time, I have no objections.”

“You think that the killer is staying in the forest?” Bella asked.

“That’s one of the theories. At least, the one where it isn’t a local. So, just in case, try to stay out of the woods. Besides, there have been some strange sounds and things in there before.”

“Strange things?”

“…Well, most of it is probably kids having fun, but there have been sightings of things moving around in there, dead animals drained of blood…” Charlie shook his head. “I’d have thought that there might be a connection of some kind of the reports hadn’t dated back off and on for about fifty years. People have been just fine, but for now, since we’re not sure where the killer is or what they’re going to do next… just…don’t go into the woods. Not unless you really have to. At least, not until this mess is over.”

“Don’t worry, Dad.” Bella smiled a little. “I’m allergic to exercise.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better about your health.”

 

* * *

 

 

 It was still dark as Bella got up and took a shower. The wooden floor was incredibly cold under her feet, and there wasn’t so much as the hint of dawn that usually showed when she got up. Charlie was in the shower, leaving her with nothing to do other than look out at the darkness from her window with a blanket over her shoulders, pretending that she was awake and aware.

This had better be the most amazing cupcake in the history of baked goods.

Once Charlie was out, Bella was able to get herself read, wrap herself in the thick, very warm coat that Charlie had gotten for her, and make her way out to the car for her cupcake and coffee breakfast. Charlie handed her a granola bar since at least this way, he didn’t feel so bad.

The air was somehow even more bitterly cold than it was at seven, and the snow from the day before now had a layer of ice that covered it, making it look hard and slick. It glittered in the house lights, but Bella made her way to her truck, turning it on, and shivering slightly as she turned it on, letting it run for a moment to get the heat going before she reached out with already numbing fingers and steered the thing out of the driveway and into the road.

The early hour meant that that roads were pretty much empty that morning. Most stores didn’t open until later and they were trying to be there right before the Hill of Beans opened. Which meant five-thirty in the morning.

Bella drove in the small parking lot, glad to see that there was already a small white car there. So Ben was probably inside. Though she before everyone else. Well, they could wait together, she supposed. Besides, it would be nice to chat with Ben a little, since he was a friend of everyone else. She didn’t just want to be some person who lived at the fringe of other people.

Bella stepped out of the car into an almost eerie silence. While she was aware that the birds shouldn’t be up, there was something strange about it. The wind whistled down the road and the branches of the trees made a strange groaning sound that she wasn’t used to.

It kind of made the hair stand up on the back of her neck.

Something moved in the nearby bushes, and she stepped back a little.

A raccoon?

It was close to the garbage.

Still, she shivered and headed up the stairs, to the front door. The inside of the shop was already laid out, but Bella couldn’t see Ben, and the clear glass shelf that displayed all pastries that were available was empty.

She knocked, trying to move and see if she could see him, but no one came into view.

Something felt weird.

Maybe it was the silence, or the rustling, or the fact that Ben’s car was there, and the lights were on, but no one was there, but Bella honesty was starting to feel a little anxious. She tried the door, and, to her surprise, found it unlocked.

She stepped into the room, greeted by the mundane sound of the equipment running, and the coffee machine finishing up the first batch of the day. With the door shut, and the warmth of the heater on, it was easy to dismiss her unease outside.

But why was it that the sinking, knotting feeling in her stomach wasn’t going away?

“Ben?” Bella called, looking around. “Hey, Ben, are here?”

There was no response.

He definitely should have heard her. Maybe he was in the back?

And hadn’t heard her drive up? She moved to the door marked ‘Employees Only’ and pushed it open.

“Ben?”

She looked around, and then froze, staring at the thing on the floor. For a moment, Bella didn’t believe what she was looking at. Her mind was refusing to process it. She just stood there, staring dumbly at the boy who lay on the ground, facing away from her, his form still, and his skin was an unnatural pale with deep, ugly gashes over his body.

Ben Cheney lay dead before her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Additional Notes:
> 
> Furries: Yes, they existed in 2005. Renee has kept Bella from those elements of the world.
> 
> The Cold Ones Story: So, this is pretty different from Meyer's version. I changed it so that it would be more in line with history and actual mythology. Bayaq is a major figure in the stories, as Raven tends to be in the Northwest, and generally is benevolent, if not selfish for the most part. It seemed more natural than just using ambiguous 'Spirits' and more like I was working with the mythology rather than just ignoring it.
> 
> Thanks so much for your support and if you have any comments or questions, I'd love to talk about it!


	5. Shadows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bella deals with the aftermath, and Edward decides to act.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Thanks for all your patience. This capture went through a ton of rewrites before I was happy with it. I hope everyone enjoys. This also introduces the fact that I'm probably going, when it works, to start switching POV's. Bella only can see so much, and honestly, I do want people to get to know my Edward.
> 
> Enjoy!

She couldn’t breathe. Bella had fallen to her knees, nausea welling up and the world spilling around her. Ben was dead, and she could see the blood. And smell it. It was an iron smell that made her want to throw up, and something wet was on her face. She didn’t even realize they were tears for a moment.

Out of some kind of half remembered instinct, Bella took her phone from her bag, fumbling, and managing to turn it on with shaking hands, trying to look at Ben, or the blood, or…

It was only after her got the ‘this number has been disconnected’ when she realized that she’d called the first number on the list. Renee. Renee had forgotten to give her the new phone number. Finally, her mind came back, and she dialed the number of someone she knew was close and could help.

“Bella?” Charlie sounded confused. “I was just heading out if you need-”

“Ben is dead,” Bella babbled into the phone. “He’s dead, and the murderer might still be nearby! I hear sounds in the bushes and-”

“Bella,” Charlie’s voice had suddenly taken on a form of authority that she hadn’t known that it could take. “Bella. Listen to me now. Get back to the truck. Lock the doors. Turn it on. If anyone someone approaches you who isn’t me, do not open the door or roll down the window. If you have to, take the car and go. Get out on the main road and towards the station. I’m going to call in. I’ll be right there. Ok?”

“Ok,” Bella said shakily.

Charlie hung up, and Bella couldn’t help but look at the body. Bile rose again, and she stumbled to her feet. Charlie’s words keeping her going. She ran, tripping over rocks, and her feet, and everything else, but she made it to the car door, and managed to clamber in before slamming it shut and locking it behind her.

But she didn’t turn the car on. She was too busy trying to hold in the sobs and heaves, and she couldn’t breathe, and she was going to throw up, and the car felt like it was spinning, and Ben was dead. And she couldn’t think.

A crunch of gravel made her look up, and just for a second, she could have sworn that she saw the outline of a person in the darkness, a good way away, in the forest. She stared, transfixed, but the thing didn’t seem to move, but there was a kind of dread that Bella had only felt in a nightmare. A sick, horrible feeling that everything was about to go wrong, but she wasn’t going to be able to wake up to escape from it.

A siren screamed through the night, and lights, loud and bright and clear, appeared through the trees. A familiar police cruiser crunched into the driveway and Charlie Swan dashed out, running towards the truck. Bella only had time to be able to open the door when he had thrown it open, and she was being embraced by him.

“You’re ok,” Charlie said. “You’re going to be ok. I’m going to get you back into the cruiser, and you’re going to have to stay there with me.”

“What about Ben?” Bella choked out. “Ben’s in there. He might not be dead.”

But she knew that he was.

“We need to wait for backup,” Charlie said. “I’ve already called. Travis is there, and so is Jones. The station is only a little way away.”

Charlie managed to shepherd her into the cruiser just as two other cars, sirens blaring, pulled up, and two people who Bella vaguely remembered as being cops who worked for her father, named Travis and Jones, stepped out.

“Stay here,” Charlie told her, I have a blanket on the other side. I’ve already called an ambulance.”

Bella nodded as Charlie straightened and walked over to meet Travis and Jones. She didn’t move for the blanket though. She just wanted to curl herself into a ball, close her eyes and wake up. She didn’t want this to be real. This couldn’t be real. Ben couldn’t really be there, dead on the floor, blood from some unseen wound spilling out.

And finally, Bella’s stomach could take it. It was a good thing that the door wasn’t locked, and even better that no one was there since she had to learn outside to essentially dry heave. Poor Ben. She couldn’t get that image out of her head.

She didn’t really notice as more lights started to flash and the gravel crunched as two other officers came closer, talking softly to someone on an intercom, but her senses did start to come back with another piercing siren sounded, and she found herself being carefully lead out of the cruiser and towards and ambulance that was waiting. Something warm was draped over her shoulder, and something was put into her hands. She looked at it. Hot chocolate. Warm. Normal.

The world starting coming back into focus. Bella could already see police tape around the building, even in the slowly lightening sky above them, and the light was on, but someone was beside her, looking unhappily over at the building. It was the man who’d given her the blanket and chocolate, but she couldn’t get a good look at him in the lights of the police cars made it hard for her to focus on him.

Charlie stepped out, walking quickly over to the man.

“Dr. Cullen. Thank you for coming out here so quickly and so early. I’ve got pictures, but…”

“The actual scene is…unfortunately…always better,” the man nodded.

Dr. Cullen? Somehow, she was too emotionally numb to even care that she was seeing Edward Cullen’s brother for the first time.

“…How’s Bella?”

“She’s suffering some minor shock. …No one should have had to see what she did. I believe that she’ll be able to answer your questions though.”

Charlie nodded, looking at her worriedly.

“Thank you for looking at her.”

Dr. Cullen shook his head. “it’s no trouble. I’ll see you at the station with the autopsy results.”

Charlie nodded, and, putting an arm around Bella to steady her, helped her from the back of the ambulance back into the back of his cruiser.

Bella carefully looked out as he closed the door, trying to say that she was fine, and she wasn’t really in shock, and she started to realize that there was a small crowd that was starting to show up. Bella somehow managed to pick out the pale and horrified faces of Mike, Jess, Erik and Angela in the crowd, and a small figure suddenly dashed past the tape that was being laid out, towards Bella. It was Alice.

While she wasn’t crying, her face was screwed up as if she wanted to, but Dr. Cullen managed to catch her before she reached Bella.

“Why didn’t you _listen_?” The girl all but sobbed. “Why doesn’t anyone ever _listen_ before it’s too late? Now it’s too late, and I don’t know what to do!”

The girl almost seemed in hysterics, though she wasn’t crying regardless of how screwed up her face was. Dr. Cullen had carefully turned her around, and was talking softly too her. Bella couldn’t hear what he was saying, but some other flash of motion caught her attention. It was Edward Cullen. He looked like he’d been planning on returning to school, but he wasn’t looking at her. He was looking at the coffee house, eyes narrow.

Was he annoyed that the crime had been found so quickly?

 

* * *

 

 

Charlie drove her to the station. It was a small, squat building that had been built in the seventies, and she was reasonably sure no one had ever bothered to update other than some of the most necessary of technology, but just being in the bright lights with other people around her made Bella feel almost like a real person again. Charlie led her into a small room with only a table, chairs, and a large cup of coffee waiting for her. He left for a moment, talking to someone, and leaving Bella to get herself comfortable for a moment.

Despite the attempt at comfort, it was hard not to feel jittery in the sterile light. What was stupid was that her mind kept going to the fact that the sugar from the cocoa and the caffeine were going to make her more jittery. 

She sat down, taking the cup, her mind focusing on anything and everything other than the fact that she was sitting in the station because someone had just been murdered practically in front of her. 

“I’m sorry Bella, but I’m going to need to ask you to tell me everything,” Charlie said, looking deeply uncomfortable. “You are the only witness, and Dr. Cullen is certain that he died only a little before you got there.”

Bella nodded, trying not to gag a little as the memory of Ben’s corpse just lying there. 

“I…I got there and noticed that while the lights were on, no one seemed to be there. I…I guess that I thought that maybe he was in the bad. The door was unlocked, so I just stepped in. I called for him, but…no one answered.”

Bella took a shuddering breath and took a drink of the coffee. It was stale, but while there was some sugar and some creamers next to the cup, she didn’t take the chance to try to improve the taste. Her hands were shaking too badly. 

“I got worried that maybe something was wrong, so I went into the back and…there he was…” Bella said. 

She looked up at Charlie. 

“I didn’t touch him,” she said suddenly. “I know that my fingerprints are going to be on the door, and that’s going to cause trouble but…”

“It’s ok, Bella,” Charlie said softly, “No one suspects you of anything. You have a pretty ironclad alibi.”

She nodded miserably. Renee had always hated cop dramas. Either because she didn’t like depressing things like crime, or because they somehow reminded her of Charlie. Still, she had a vague idea of how things went. 

“I called you after that but…” her head shot up. “I thought there was someone there. When I was in the car. I thought that I saw the outline of a person. But…I don’t know, it was dark and I was scared. I might have been wrong…”

Charlie was looking at her very hard. There was something tense about his shoulders too. Something that Bella wouldn’t have usually seen, but it felt like her senses had been heightened by the adrenaline that was coursing through her at the moment.

“Can you describe anything about him?” he asked, but before Bella could do more than open her mouth to protest, he shook his head. “I know that you think that it’s nothing, but we need to be sure. Even if it is nothing, I’d rather take the risk of looking for a ghost than ignoring a potential clue.”

Finally, Bella nodded. For a moment, she wondered if she could tell Charlie her doubts about Edward Cullen, but she decided against it. She had nothing to go on other than suspicion. Nothing that would hold up in a court. Renee had watched enough mysteries (the cozy kind where the clever single woman managed to crack the mystery that fooled the cops) to know that suspicion wasn’t enough. She’d have to prove that.

“It was just a figure. It was dark, like a shadow. It looked male, but I couldn’t tell anything distinctive about it. Honestly, now that it’s light…it was probably an illusion. They didn’t move or anything, so…”

Charlie nodded. 

“It might be something to go on,” Charlie said.

But maybe it was better that he didn’t say that it was either an optical illusion or a real person. If it was an illusion than Bella had had a small breakdown in the car. Not something that was particularly surprising. However, if it was something that was real, then it meant that Bella had been all too close to the killer. Someone who would have seen her, and who might now have someone new to go after.

Bella remembered Alice’s words and shivered. It was too late, the girl had said, and that honestly scared her.

There was a knock at the door and a man opened it and looked in. He was familiar, young, maybe in his early twenties, though something about him made him seem much older. Maybe it was the tiredness in his washed out brown eyes. His light brown hair was cut fashionably, parted to the side, but what caught Bella’s attention was that he had the same flawless good looks as Edward, Alice and Rosalie had.

This had to be Carlisle Cullen. 

“I’m sorry to interrupt, Charlie, but I’m going to need to talk to you,” Dr. Cullen said, his eyes flickering between Charlie and Bella, worry written on his face.   
  
Charlie sighed and nodded. 

“Ok,” he said, then he paused, and Bella shook her head. 

“I’ll be fine,” she said.

Besides, she was in a police station. Being left to herself for some odd amount of time seemed like some kind of requirement.

“Thanks, Bella,” Charlie said. “Once we’re done, I promise, I’ll get you home.”

Bella’s stomach clenched at the idea of being there alone. Maybe she should insist on going back to school? That didn’t sound like a really great idea either. The idea of the stares and the questions and the whispers that she knew would follow her for the rest of the day made her decide that home was better. The school would have had time to talk about the murder. Ben was well liked, and a lot of students went to the Hill of Beans for morning coffee.   
Her involvement would follow eventually.

“As a suggestion,” Dr. Cullen said, stepping in, “It might help Bella right now to not be by herself. She’s just seen something terrible.”

Charlie hesitated. She could practically see him wavering between two poles. One the one hand, he was a busy cop, and there was a murder investigation underway. On the other, he was still her father. Some part of her wasn’t completely sure if she shouldn’t be offended. After all, she was seventeen, nearly an adult, and she could handle being alone in the house, regardless of what had happened. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t been able to be alone since she was legally able to be left without a babysitter. 

Still, the idea of being in that house, when there might be someone who was after her…

“Perhaps there’s a friend of the family?” Dr. Cullen asked. 

For a moment, Bella was surprised that Dr. Cullen didn’t suggest Renee, but if he was a friend of Charlie’s, which Charlie seemed to be implying, he’d probably know that she was in Florida. It was a problem though. Most people in Forks had jobs, and the people she knew were in school. Well, not everyone she realized.

“Maybe I could go over to La Push?” Bella asked. “I…I need my truck…but…”

“Don’t worry about your truck, I’ll get it and bring it home for you. I could call Billy. He probably knows someone who can drive you, and I’m sure that you could stay with him for a few hours if you wanted to. Or…you got to know Leah, right? I’m pretty sure that she’s still at home, applying to colleges. I remember Henry mentioning that her job at the theatre was mostly at night.

While Bella didn’t mind Leah, she also still wasn’t sure what the two girls would have to talk about. One time playing Dungeons and Dragons didn’t make them besties, but at the same time she really didn’t want to put Billy out.

“He’s going to have to drive all this way…” Bella said. “No, it’s not fair.”

She wasn’t his kid. Just the old friend of his son, and the daughter of a friend of his.

“Bella, I promise you, Billy won’t mind,” Charlie forced a smile. “Besides, it’ll give him the chance to nose about and find out what we’re doing over here. He’ll love that.”

Bella forced a smile, but that did make her feel a little better. 

“Alright,” she said softly. “Thanks.”

Charlie took a while with Dr. Cullen, and somehow, regardless of coffee and sugar, Bella found herself feeling asleep. It was a different kind of exhaustion, one that was mental as well as physical. She wanted to sleep and pretend that everything was fine, and nothing was wrong. 

Still, even in her doze, Ben’s corpse and the figure were there. Only this time, the figure looked a whole lot more like Edward Cullen as it slowly approached the van. That same look that he’d had on his face in biology was there again, and Bella shot up out of the dream quickly.

Was she right? Was he really responsible for Ben’s death? It was one thing to think that he was creepy and weird when he drooled at her. I was another thing entirely to accuse him of murdering someone in cold blood.  
She couldn’t go to Charlie with this. She had no evidence that Edward was anything other than weird. No proof. Nothing but a really bad experience with him. Any court would find her a biased source, wouldn’t they? 

So she’d have to poke.

For Ben’s sake.

They might not have been close, but he’d been kind to her, and the first friendly face that she’d seen in Forks other than her father, and he hadn’t deserved to die. Even if she was wrong, at least she’d know for sure that it hadn’t been him, and that she was wrong. And…at some level she did hope that she was wrong. She’d rather Ben be killed by some stranger who had snuck into the unlocked door and taken advantage of it than by someone who Ben had known and possibly even trusted.

A knock on the door made her look up as a younger policeman stepped in. He looked fresh out of school, with a boyish look about him, but looked pale and a little nervous, but he strained a smile when he saw her.

“Miss Swan? Sorry, I was supposed to take you into the waiting room…could you…not tell Chief Swan that I forgot? This is my first month…” he winced. “Anyways, Billy Black is here.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Bella said. “It’s…been a hard morning for everyone.”

And honestly, she didn’t mind having the privacy to sleep anyways. Sleeping in the waiting room would have been…worse somehow. It meant that, if she’d dozed or cried or done anything else that was stupid and that she was going to regret, no one could see her. It was way better than having been by herself to deal with this.

The officer smiled a little. 

“Thanks,” he said softly, and opened the door for her to pass.

Billy was waiting for her, and he smiled as she came out. It was a tight smile, one that, while reaching his eyes, seemed less happy and more worried. 

“Bella,” he said. “…How are you holding up.”

“I’m ok,” Bella said, but both of them knew that she was lying. “At least…I’m better than I was.”

Billy nodded understandably.

They might have left right then but another door opened, and Dr. Carlisle Cullen stepped out. He seemed drawn somehow, but he stopped, blinking once at Billy and Bella.

“Hello, Mr. Black,” Dr. Cullen said.

“Doctor,” Billy’s voice was stiff. “Anything that the people of La Push should know?”

“I am certain that the killer is not from here,” Dr. Cullen said softly, there seemed to be something earnest in the way he was looking at Billy. 

“I don’t know, there are some pretty unsavory types,” Billy said, the even look stayed. “I have faith that you will inform the police if you know anything that they can work with, as well as the tribe.”

“Absolutely,” Dr. Cullen said. “I can only hope that it is soon.”

Dr. Cullen gave Bella a small smile, but there was pure worry in his eyes when they met hers. Was he worried that she was going to be targeted now? This was the man who had given Edward the ‘weird medication’ but he seemed sincere in his actions so far.

Still, she couldn’t be sure. She just…hoped. 

Billy and Bella headed out to Billy’s car, and for the first time, Bella realized that Billy wasn’t alone. Henry Clearwater was there too, helping Billy into the car, and smiling once at Bella.

She hadn’t seen Henry in years. As a child, she’d had an impression of him as a large, happy man, and he seem had that impression, even though there were worry lines on his face, and more grey on his hair.

“I didn’t realize that…you’d need to take off of work…” Bella said, feeling really uncomfortable.

What did Henry do? She couldn’t remember too well anymore. As a child, it hadn’t really mattered what a friend of her father did with his life. The most that she'd really known was that Henry had liked to go hunting and fishing with her father when there was time. 

“Don’t worry, Bella, Billy asked for some help, and I was glad to assist a little. Besides, this is my lunch break. It means I’ll be able to actually answer some of the questions that the council is getting at least. An attack in Forks is close enough to La Push to have people really nervous. Let alone two.”

Billy snorted, but he allowed himself to be helped into the seat as Bella clambered into the back. She closed the door, but she was still able to hear the conversation between Billy and Henry.

“What did he say?” Henry asked.

“He’s saying that it’s coming from somewhere out of town,” Billy said, his voice still neutral.

“You think he’s telling the truth?”

“Hopefully. He’s not much of a liar. Though he might not know. Seems a little too trusting for me. Even if it is from out of the town… so far we’ve been lucky, but I’m nervous that ‘so far’ isn’t going to last too long. We’re going to have to call another meeting. Particularly if things are going to get out of hand.”

“Yeah…” Bella could hear the shaking of Henry’s head. “Hey, Billy, how much do you believe in the old stories?”

“Enough to be cautious of the Cullens and this killer.”

There wasn’t anything else that was said and the two entered the car as if nothing was wrong. All Bella could do was sit there, looking as if she hadn’t been trying to listen as they started the car and Henry turned on the radio to some talk show with a man with a very loud, grating voice who was talking about something involving taxes. He seemed upset about it.

Bella tuned it out, but she couldn’t stop thinking about what she’d heard all the way to La Push.

 

* * *

 

 

It was actually already afternoon by the time that Bella got to La Push, and there wasn’t much to do other than sit there and pick of a book. Billy had directed her towards a box in one of the closets where there were a stash of old romance books that had used to belong to Sarah Black, before the car accident.

  
Judging by the lair of dust on them, Bella wasn’t sure if they were there because Billy didn’t have the heart to throw them away or didn’t have the heart to touch them, even after all of this time. 

It felt wrong, somehow, looking through those old books, and Bella contented herself with looking at Jacob’s magazine for motorcycles. While she wasn’t sure that she was particularly invested in the idea of hurdling down the highway with nothing between her and death but a helmet, she could see why Jacob was interested in the idea. There was something exciting looking about it.

And they were a really nice distraction from what had happened.

Jacob himself came in around three, looking tired. He stopped when he said Bella, and looked down, clearly not sure how he was going to go about this.

“I heard about what happened at the coffee shop,” he said. “Were you friends with Ben?”

Was she? She wasn’t completely sure, but then she decided. 

“Yeah,” she said. “I found him.”

Jacob’s head shot up, eyes wide.

“You found him?” he asked. He looked like he wanted to ask more questions, but he stopped, looking awkward.

“Yeah. Police think that…the killer was right there, but my car startled them,” Bella said. 

She didn’t want to shiver, but she did.

Jacob was quiet for a moment.

“They’re starting to call them the Vampire Killer, you know that?” Jacob said. “They say that all the blood was drained out of them… Sorry.”

“No…it’s normal to want to talk about it,” Bella said. “I’m sure that everyone’s wondering what happened or who did it… I’m wondering what happened and who did it.”

“I met Ben,” he said. “Not much, but when we went with Quil to meet up with Lauren, sometimes we went for coffee. Dad would kill me since Hill of Beans is stupidly expensive, but Ben was nice enough. He never asked any nosy or stupid questions.”  
Bella nodded.

  
“He was the first person I didn’t know from Forks to talk to me. I mean, I know that it was his job to talk to me, but…I was really nervous about starting a new school, and it really made me feel better. I wish that I could have done something…been there sooner. Maybe if…”

“You can’t think like that,” Jacob said. “You can’t blame yourself. If you’d gotten there sooner, he might just have killed you.”

Bella was quiet, and while logically, she knew Jacob was probably right, but emotionally, she couldn’t help but think that there was something else that she could have done. Even if he was after her at that point, somehow, it would be better. After all, she was a police chief’s kid, it wouldn’t be easy…

Then Alice came back, her face screwed up as if she wanted to cry, but no tears coming out.

Now it’s too late, and I don’t know what to do.

And that just made her think about Edward, standing there, watching her.

“I wish there was something that we could do,” Jacob said. “But I guess kids solving the mystery is just something out of bad teen movies.”

“Maybe,” Bella said softly. 

“What do you mean?”

“…I think that Edward Cullen is involved.”

“Seriously?”

“He was missing from school for a few days, and then showed up really quick to the coffee shop. I know that it’s just a gut feeling, but Charlie once told me that gut feelings can really sometimes be on the mark. Maybe we can find something out. I can probably ask Charlie about it, and maybe you can see why your dad hates the Cullens as much as he does. Maybe there’s a history or something.”

Jacob made a thoughtful noise, but Bella was pretty sure that he wasn't too convinced.

“Besides,” Bella added in a small voice. “At least it’ll feel like I’m doing something other than sitting there on my hands, waiting for something to happen and someone else to solve all my problems for me. And if we're wrong, we're not going to be making a bunch of accusations or anything, just...looking around and seeing...”

Jacob was silent for a few moments, closing his eyes and clearly thinking, but then he nodded.

“Alright.”

 

* * *

 

 

Charlie came to get her before dinner, almost and took her to the Olympic Diner, a small wooden place that Charlie had used to take Bella to all the time. The familiar smells were kind of nice, as was the feeling that she was in public. 

News had traveled fast. People were giving Bella sympathetic looks, and at the end of the meal, the waitress gave her a small piece of cake “on the house”. While she didn’t like being the center of attention, and it didn’t change the fact that Ben was dead, she felt a little guilty about the fact that they did help her feel better.

Charlie didn’t want to talk too much about the autopsy, or the case, so while the food was good, and Charlie’s being there did help, it was hard to find any conversation that didn’t taper off.

They headed back to the house, and for a moment Bella considered heading up to her bright little room, and…what? Sending an email to Renee? She’d demand that Bella come to Florida at once, and berate for Charlie for letting her have a car in the first place. Read? She couldn’t concentrate, and she’d be jumping at every little sound. Study? The last thing she wanted to do was pretend that this was business as usual. Research the Cullens? ...Not yet.

Charlie looked just as uncomfortable, glancing at her as if he was thinking of suggesting that they do something, but not sure what activity would sound like it was either inappropriate, childish or in bad taste.

Bella decided to move to the sitting room, ignoring the Shelf of Bella and glancing at the fireplace. 

“If you want, I could light a fire and make some hot chocolate,” Charlie suggested. 

It had been a long time since they’d done that. Make when she was…very little.

“…I’d like that,” Bella said softly. 

Charlie just seemed happy there was something that he could do, and before too long, she was sitting with a cup of hot chocolate looking at the merry fire.

“And…Dad…who was the first person who saw die?”

Charlie was quiet for a while, and Bella turned to see that he’d closed his eyes. 

“Back when I was just out of the academy in Seattle, one of the things we did was patrol with a seasoned officer, mostly to get a feel for how things were going to be. I’d had dreams of making it as a sort of big city cop, and felt pretty confident. We headed out, and the night was going pretty good. Then, around three, we ended up getting a call about a disturbance. Someone had looked out their window and seen what looked like some kind of gang fighting,” Charlie said, closing his eyes. “I was a little excited, truth be told. I might not look it now, but…well…I had dreams of being some hero cop, you know, from the movies.”

He laughed a little, sounding embarrassed, and Bella smiled a little into her hot chocolate. It was a strange idea. Then again, so was the idea of Charlie marrying Renee in a whirlwind romance. Charlie seemed like such a careful, quiet person.

“Well, we got there, but there wasn’t a gang. Just one person leaning over another. Me and my partner got out of the car and yelled for the person to back away from the one on the ground. The man...well, it looked like a man I guess, looked up, and bared his teeth at us. Before we could open fire, he’d dashed down the alley. There were more officers coming from that way, so we focused on the person on the ground…or at least what was left of them…. “ Charlie stopped, looking at the fire, and shaking his head. “You’re told, in the academy, that things get ugly, and you think that you’re ready for it. At least…until you see it for yourself. I think that the worst part was that the kid was still alive. He looked like he was about highschool age, at least what we could

see of him. He’d been…pretty well ripped apart, but he was still breathing.”

Charlie stopped again, and this time he didn’t start again for a while.

“…you don’t have to tell me,” Bella said softly.

Charlie shook his head. “I’m just not sure how much this is going to help. My partner called for help, and I tried to help the kid…keep him with me. He managed to regain consciousness for a few minutes. Told me that he’d been walking home from a study group…and that he’d been jumped, but nothing much more before he passed out, and then the paramedics came… He was dead by that time though…I felt it. …Forensics came back and told us that it looked like that nut had been trying to eat the kid…”  
Bella felt bile rising up, but she tried to keep her face from showing it. She’d asked for this. She’d wanted to know.

“After that, well, I realized that “big city cop” was a lot less of helping people and a lot more of telling parents that their children weren’t coming home… I guess that death really hit me. So, I went home, to Forks. Declay, the chief at the time, always told me that he’d have a place on the local force for me if I wanted it, so I applied to be transferred…”

“And now…”

“And now, I’m a lot older,” Charlie said, her face set, but he looked over at Bella. “You know…we don’t have anyone locally other than Dr. Cullen, but if you want to talk to someone in Port Angeles or Seattle, there’s no shame in that, and I get good benefits for counseling.”

Bella took a breath. The guy in Charlie’s story reminded her of Ben somehow, her in her mind’s eye, the two were basically the same. Someone had tried to eat him too. After all, at first, they’d thought that the bodies were some kind of animal attack. Ben had just been saved from that fate at least by the fact that she’d come that quickly.

She didn’t want to talk to someone. She wanted to see whoever had done this to Ben behind bars. Bella clenched her fists. 

“No. I think I’m fine,” Bella said. “Thanks, Dad…that actually helped.”

“Can’t imagine why,” Charlie said, looking at the fire. “but if you change your mind, or start having nightmares…”

She wasn’t sure either, but something was tugging on the back or her mind. It felt like everything had a connection, but it was something that she wasn’t seeing, but that she really wanted to see, and something kept telling her that it had something to do with why Billy Black never let the Cullens on the tribe land. 

Jacob was going to look into that more, and…she was going to learn what she could about the murders. Some part of her wondered just why she thought that she could do what her father couldn’t. Maybe it wouldn’t do anything. Maybe it would just be a waste of time, but…it was something. 

“So…what are you going to tell Renee?” Charlie’s question came out of nowhere, and Bella jumped a little from her thoughts. 

“Wait, what? …oh,” Bella said. What was she going to tell her mother? “Er…I guess I need to be honest that there was a murder of someone I knew…”

And Renee would start worrying, and trying to force Charlie to let her come to Florida. 

Bella didn’t want that. Even if Florida suddenly sounded very warm, sunny, and safe. Bella wanted to stay, and she wanted to find out what was going on. She couldn’t just walk away. Particularly when she might have seen something, and Jacob was going to help her find out at least if Edward was involved or not. She couldn’t just…leave this. Not when she’d already started.

“I’ll tell her not to worry, and that I’m fine though. I mean…murders happen all the time, and it’s not like I’m a key witness, right?” Bella smiled a little. “Mom might be upset, but…”  
Charlie shook his head a little, a tight smile on his face. “First Edward Cullen acts up, and now this… Forks is being a little hard to you, isn’t it?”

“Forks is fine,” Bella said quickly. “Everyone else has been really nice. I’m just really unlucky, but…hey, it needs to break, right? Maybe you’ll catch this guy and everything will come back to normal, and I can see what real Forksian life is like.”

Charlie’s smile became a little more real.

 

* * *

 

 

Being dead meant that you were incapable of sleep. After all, why would the dead need to regain their energy? With so much time, and the exercises assigned to them by the school long over, it was always difficult to find ways to pass the time that did not impede the others. 

For Edward Cullen that usually meant playing the piano.

“If I hear you play ‘Til I Wake’ one more time,” Rosalie stepped in, her arms crossed. “Can’t you play something a little bouncier?”

“It is hardly appropriate,” Edward said.

Rosalie heaved a frustrated sigh.

“I know, but you’re not helping anyone, Alice especially.”

Rosalie was determinedly not caring about Ben. He heard the thoughts and justifications, as well as the thread of…something else…that laced through her thoughts. She was focusing on Alice, and on them. So long as they kept their heads down, the killer would move on, she told herself. 

Since the events of that morning, Alice had been distraught. While everyone in the class, which had pushed classes along bravely; however, the state of the students was hardly that to allow learning. While usually, the surface thoughts of the students were either on the subject or on whatever details of their lives that they deemed more important at the moment, now everything was on Ben Cheney’s death, and what that had meant. 

Images of what it might have looked like, what it could have been were everywhere. And he was the fortunate one. Jasper, for lack of a better word, suffered. The fear, shock, grief, pain and sorrow of so many students was almost too much for him. Jasper almost wept when passing a blonde girl with short hair, Angela if Edward recalled correctly, who Ben had been briefly seeing.

Alice, however, was the one who had suffered the more. She’d been unfortunate enough to have gained a vision, not only of Ben’s death which she’d been unable to prevent as well, but that of the Swan girl. Images of her mangled body, along with the thought that he’s going to come after her and why didn’t I go there? would not stop coursing through her mind.

Even when they had returned to the house, only to be met by Esme’s frantic productivity to prepare a decent meal for Ms. Cheney and those who had come to comfort her from the local church, Alice had been withdrawn.

Emmet stepped into the room, side stepping Rosalie, and leaning against the door. 

“How is Alice?” Edward asked.

“Jasper’s with ‘er,” Emmet said. “She’s still pretty upset though. Did Carlisle call?”

Emmet thoughts and his words always lined up. 

“Yes,” Edward said, “Though it might be more advantageous to talk about this with Jasper and Alice.”

“That bad?” Emmet asked.

Worse, Edward wanted to tell him. Much worse. 

They headed into the family room, which was little more than an amalgamation of different sofas and chairs, along with a massive entertainment system that Edward saw no point in. He missed the time when family rooms had been meant for reading, music and talking, not sitting and staring at a plastic monstrosity like the corpses they were.

Alice was seated, curled up in the loveseat with Jasper, looking smaller than usual somehow. 

Despite Carlisle’s assurances that Alice was in fact an adult, Edward had originally assumed that she was all of fourteen when she was turned. This was one of those moments where she looked it.

Dull eyes looked up as they came in.

“Bad news,” Alice said, in the far off voice which she sometimes acquired when she saw a vision.

“How bad?” Jasper asked Edward as he seated himself.

“It has been confirmed that the attacker is one of us. And given that they are being so showy, it is either a rogue, a newborn, or a challenger.”

The silence in the room was only surface. Edward could hear the whispered thoughts of the others. All of them together made it like the who room was talking at once, but he caught snatches of their trains of thought.

_If the Volturi are involved…_

_Wanna get him good for what he’s been doing, these are good people… Me and Ed can probably…_

_The best strategy would likely be…_

_He’s going to come after her._

This was probably going to continue all night, and the worried thoughts weren’t going to help his pseudo family in what was coming. 

“Carlisle also wanted me to inform everyone that the Quileute suspect us as to having something to do with what happened.”

For a moment, both thought and sound were silent, but then the room exploded into noise, and, from the mental wince from Jasper, feeling. 

“How do they even think that?” Emmet said, his voice raising and his accent growing thinker as he spoke. “We’ve been comin’ back and forth from this… for what, fifty years? Do they really think that we’re gonna just decide to eat someone out of the blue?”

“Apparently,” Edward said softly.

He had always been aware of the fact that the local tribe hated them, and for good reason. While the population of Forks only avoided them out of a half remembered instinct to avoid the predator, the Quileute’s had the stories and people who still valued them, even though the younger generation was moving away from it. They also, for all Edward knew, still had Raven’s help. 

“So, if we are dealing with a challenger, we’ll need to make sure that we keep our actions quiet,” Jasper said. “And, of course, off of Quileute grounds. Isn’t that Bella girl close to one of the Elder’s sons?”

“Yes,” Alice said. 

They all turned in surprise to look at her. Edward had been hearing the undercurrent of her thoughts, but they seemed more on the same vein as everything else she’d been thinking. He hadn’t realized she was paying attention.

“We have to do something. She’s going to die if we don’t.”

“What makes her different than Ben?” Rosalie said, shaking her head. “Or-“

“I couldn’t have done anything for Ben!” Alice said. “None of us could, but we can do something for Bella.”

Rosalie gave Alice a skeptical look. She was fairly certain that Alice was only interested because she’d had that one vision of a possibility of them being friends, and Alice was going to hold to it. But, Alice was telling the truth. While she did truly regret Ben’s death, the factors involved were such that even if they’d all been there, Ben would have been hunted down anyways. 

Now _he_ had Bella’s scent.

Edward could not discern much from Alice’s scattered visions of darkness and blood, but he was able to get a little bit.

“Alice is telling the truth,” he finally said. “Whoever this is is probably a tracker. They will have her scent after what happened today.”

Trackers were rare among their kind. They were people who’d always been hunters in their lives, and they’d never stopped that, even when their prey turned out to be humanity. 

That was the thing with powers. It was always a reminder of some skill that they’d had when they were human, corrupted and exaggerated until it was something to prey off the innocent with.

“You think we should get involved,” Rosalie said. It wasn’t a question, and Edward could hear the irritated thoughts coming from her.

“It would be advantageous to us,” Jasper added. “The Quileute want to be sure that we are not involved. What better way than finding the real killer?”

Jasper was telling the truth, but he was phrasing the words carefully. He had liked Bella Swan well enough in their first meeting, and felt sympathy for the human girl who had just been thrust into their world through no fault of her own.

As did Edward.

It had been bad enough when he’d nearly lost control for the first time in almost a century. Even now, when he was too close to the young woman, he could smell that absolutely intoxicating scent of blood, of life, that called out to him, inviting him to feed, promising him that, if only for a few moments, he would be able to feel his blood pulsing, his heart beating, his chest rising. Feel the promise of dreams, of a future long stolen away from him, of potential that he no longer had.

It had been all that he could do to sit still, hold his breath, focus on the lecture, the table, the fact that Jessica was daydreaming about doing absolutely unladylike things with her friend Michael, anything other than her.

Terrified that, if he lost control, he’d slaughter everyone in the room out of mindless bloodlust.

Jasper had helped, keeping people from noticing his behavior, but there was only so much that he could do. And Edward, after apologizing, had avoided the school, both out of his own humiliation that he’d allowed himself to do something so…disgusting, fear that he wouldn’t be able to hold himself back again, and the desire to give Miss Swan some time to acclimate herself to the school without needing to worry about him.

He’d been so busy fighting off his own bloodlust that he hadn’t even noticed what he did that morning. 

While she still smelled the same way as before, Edward had been prepared, and this time, he was himself enough to be able to tell something else: he could hear the hushed thoughts of the others: Charlie’s concern and horror, Carlisle’s pity and worry, the onlookers shock, he couldn’t hear Miss Swan’s thoughts.

He wasn’t entirely certain if his desire to help her was out of altruism, guilt, or, disgustingly enough, mere curiosity that there was someone out there who he couldn’t hear, who was still a mystery to him, but he supposed that he didn’t matter.

“We should do what we can,” Edward said. “Alice should be aware of the tracker, and Bella’s next move, so if we can counter him before he is able to attack, she should be safe.”

Edward knew all too well by this time that there were no heroes in this world; there were just victims and monsters with varying degrees of reluctance.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, some final notes and extra tidbits.
> 
> I'm adding to Charlie's backstory a bit, and I'm starting to notice that his and Bella's relationship is probably going to be a huge theme. I think that families will be. Edward's POV is probably going to take me some getting used to, but I'm curious to hear what you think of it!
> 
> "Till I Wake" was a pretty popular song in about the 1900's through 1910's, so I see it as something that Edward probably would have known how to play. If you're interested in one version of it you can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4PuYvkm0T0
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	6. Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the aftermath of Ben's death, Bella begins looking into the Cullens and the past of Forks along side Jacob, and has a strange conversation with Edward Cullen. However, she is not the only one reacting to the death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year, everyone. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy. This chapter gave me a lot of trouble, but as you can see, at least it's done.

The aftermath of Ben’s death hung over Forks like a shroud. There was something muted in the activity at Forks High, where so many people, both students and teachers, had known him. The first football game of the new year started with a moment of silence for Ben, and a small picture of him was hung up in Fork’s High’s tiny trophy cabinet in memory of him. 

Still, with a depressing regularity, life moved on. Class continued, tests still needed to be studied for, and gradually the hush faded, other than a respectful understanding for those who had really known Ben. Bella found herself included by default as the poor unfortunate soul who’d found his body. Which was probably a good thing, since she really couldn’t have kept up with most of what was going on in the school.

Jacob had emailed her with some gossip from the Reservation School, but other than some rumors that were just stupid, like it had been gang related, there was nothing much to say, so she’d buried herself in researching on the internet, trying to find anything similar to this that had come up recently, and, also, looking for information on the Cullens.

There wasn’t much. It more or less seemed like they’d sort of sprang into existence some time about three years ago, right when they moved to Forks. She couldn't even find a record of Carlisle, though she supposed that it might be hard if she didn't know what school he'd graduated from.  Still, it was strange that the family just...didn't seem to exist.

Had they changed their names?

Bella was picking at her lunch, a disgusting looking mix of potatoes and chicken that she wasn’t helping by mixing further when Jessica’s voice broke her out of her thoughts.

“Are you going to the Spring Fling, Angela?”

Angela, who’d been pretty quiet over the last week, paused, but then nodded.

“I know Ben would want me to, but…well…I’m not planning on asking anyone.”

“What if someone asks you?” Bella asked, taking part of the conversation for the first time all day.

Thankfully, there was no snarky comment or ‘it speaks’ from anyone.  Bella was pretty sure that this had been a try to get both of them out of their shells by Jessica, Mike and Erik. Angela...wasn't doing well. She was Ben's ex, and it seemed that the break-up had been pretty amiable, which only made it worse.  

“Oh, right. You don't know. Spring Flings sort of an old thing from the sixties,” Jess said. “Some teacher fresh out of college decided that the way to fight sexism was to make it so that there was a dance were the women had to ask the men. So, Spring Fling just sort of became lady’s choice. It’s basically something that only the juniors and sophomores do, since the Seniors are busy with prom. It’s even held in a different building. I guess we’ve got like…high school germs or something.”

Bella snorted. That was…different.

“Anyways, we could all just sort of go solo,” Jessica said, smiling a little. “Could be fun.”

“You could miss out too…” Mike said, trailing off when he noticed that Bella was looking at him.

He was a little obvious.

“There’s still prom,” Jess said, smiling a little.

She was pretty obvious too.

Angela didn’t respond immediately, and Bella wasn’t sure if she was considering going or thinking of some way to get out of it. Eventually though, she nodded.

“Yeah…” she said. “I’m sure that Ben would have wanted me to go, but…I’m not sure if I can ask someone else to come. Not this time.”

It was honestly the first time that Angela had taken a real interest in the conversation for a while.

“Then we’ll come with you,” Bella said quickly. 

She regretted that, but then was irritated for regretting it. Just because she didn’t like big social things like this didn’t mean anything. It would make Angela feel better, and honestly, she had every other Saturday night to sit alone, watch movies or maybe try to find out what was going on with Jacob. Even if parties and such weren’t particularly fun for her, and she knew that a dress would take a chunk out of her savings, she wanted to be able to do something for Angela at least.

“Yeah,” Erik said. “Maybe we should all do it. I mean, Ben used to hang out with us all the time. Maybe we should sort of…go together in his memory. Like we don’t accept the…er…many invites that we’re going to get, and you don’t ask anyone, and we’ll just hang out together.”

Mike nodded.

Angela smiled tentatively.

“Thanks guys,” she said. “I’d like that. Just everyone…not as dates but…you know.”

Bella smiled, but as the conversation shifted to going to a place to eat that Ben had liked, she couldn’t help feeling that somehow…she didn’t belong in this picture. She was still the new girl. Someone who hadn’t really known Ben, even someone who’d seen him dead first…did they really belong with the real mourners? Ben hadn't been her friend, but, if her presence made Angela feel better, than that was the least she could do.

Well, that and find out if the Cullen's really were involved.

“Alright, I guess we need to pick out dresses soon,” Jessica said, looking between Angela and Bella.

But before plans could finalize the bell rang. Bella gathered her things, but somehow, Bella felt good. Like she’d finally managed to do something that wasn’t tagging along or just trying to come up with something.

 

* * *

 

There was something disgustingly wasteful about acquiring food and merely disposing of it. Edward looked blankly at the large slice of pizza that was staring at him. He’d never actually tasted it, though a piece sat on his plate every Wednesday, waiting to be thrown into the waste when it could have fed just about anyone else in the room. Having existed during what was now called the Great Depression, Edward still hated the idea of wasting food, but people wondered if they just sat there and didn’t at least pretend that they were eating.

Outside food was not permitted on the school grounds, and while they could have left, it was best not to have people asking where they went to eat. 

“I’m going huntin’ tonight,” Emmett said, watching the doors to the outside of the cafeteria thoughtfully. “Wanna come, Ed?”

Emmett, was probably the only person alive or dead who had ever called him ‘Ed’. Sometimes, in a good mood, when things weren’t so far away, he would amuse himself with imagining just how his mother would have responded to the fact that not only was he friends with someone whose idea of a square meal had once involved opossum and moonshine, but opossum had become one of his main forms of subsistence as well. 

“I think I will join you,” Edward said.

Emmett was glad, not just because he liked Edward’s company, but because he thought that Edward being well fed would keep him from another…incident. And he felt horrible that the thoughts were plain for Edward to see.

They were rather like snakes. They only needed to eat once or twice a week. And then…well, the hunger wasn’t so bad.

“I think I’ll join you as well,” Jasper said.

He still had cravings. Sometimes Edward heard them, as well as the disgust and the sudden focus on the emotions of the people around them. Apparently, regardless of students considering the academy to be some form of purgatory, they were mostly content with their lives, and that contentment helped.

“…Bella’s going to die,” Alice’s voice, soft monotone as it was, and laced with a clear image of poor Miss Swan’s ravaged body cut through any thoughts of food.

Edward stole a glance towards where Miss Swan sat with her friends. Jessica was considering which color would look best for everyone, already having discarded anything pastel for Bella on grounds that she’d look pasty, and Angela was just glad that her friends were giving her something, anything, else to thing about but Ben. Michael was a little disappointed that Jessica would probably not ask him to the school dance, but hopeful that there would at least be some time with her. Erik was worried for Angela.

Miss Swan, as before, was an enigma.

“When?” he asked.

“Soon,” Alice said, the sureness of a strong prediction in her voice. “It’s going to be at night…there’s…there’s an alley and…” she shivered.

“Anything else? Just an alley?”

“That’s it…” she muttered.

That was not a lot of information.

“We could…er…follow her?” Emmett suggested.

Edward wanted to flinch. While there was nothing in Emmett’s thoughts that implied anything wrong, it bothered him to stalk someone like… Well, like he did once.

“We need to be careful,” Edward said softly. “If we are not, we will be the ones who bring about Alice’s vision.”

They had all learned that potential problem already. Attempting to prevent Alice’s visions was sometimes a surefire way to make them come true. Edward just hoped that this wasn’t that point.

 

* * *

 

Bella wasn’t looking forward to Biology. 

She knew that Edward was back. She’d seen him that morning and seen him at lunch, but so far, she’d been putting off thinking of dealing with him until she stepped into the class, where several microscopes had already been set up, and Edward Cullen was sitting in his old seat, not looking at her. 

This was going to be...fun.

She wasn’t sure how he’d gotten there before her, given that she was starting to be familiar with the layout of the building, but decided to chalk it up to some other strangeness that was less intimidating than the possibility of his being a murderer.

“Miss Swan,” Banner said, “please take your usual seat.”

For a moment, Bella hesitated. Should she complain? No one had seen it though, and while Charlie had been quick to believe her, and the Cullens would probably confirm anything, she wasn’t sure if, right after witnessing a murder, she wanted to bring attention to herself.

Besides…

An idea was starting to grow. One that might potentially get her killed, but one that might at least help her to learn something. If she acted normal, like she wasn’t suspicious… Murderers like to talk right? Maybe. Still, it was something, and she didn’t want to let on to Edward that she suspected him.

So, taking a breath, Bella walked over and sat down, debating to herself just how normal she needed to be. After all, he had…had his little freak out. It was normal for her to be wary. Unless she was so stupid and blinded by the fact that he _was_ good looking to actually have any survival instinct.

Edward answered the question for her.

“Good afternoon, Miss Swan,” he said in that somewhat stuffy tone that he’d had on the phone.

“Hi,” Bella said, allowing her real hesitance into her tone. “Er… so…”

“Alright, now that everyone is here,” Banner interrupted as Mike slipped in with an embarrassed grin, “We’re going to be identifying the different phases with your partner. Ideally, this means that one of you will be giving the name of the phase and the other will be righting it down, with both of you putting input as to why. Now this is technically a quiz, so I expect low voices and no communication between anyone but your partners. Good luck.”

Bella glanced at Edward. Did he even know what the phases were? It wasn’t like he’d been in class while Banner had been covering them.

“I can examine the different phases,” Edward offered. “I am more than aware of them.”

“You’re sure?” Bella couldn’t keep the skepticism out of her voice.

“While I was not attending classes, I was keeping up with the exercises from noting the schedule on the internet and remembering what my sister Rosalie said. All of the schools in the state are expected to keep the same curriculum. As poor as it might be.”

That didn’t really make her feel better, but she couldn’t just say that she’d do it all herself.

“Alright,” Bella said.

As they sat down and Bella prepared to write her answers, Edward paused for a moment.

“I wish to apologize again,” he said. “As well as to express my sympathies.”

For a moment, Bella didn’t know what he was expressing sympathies about, but then she realized.

“Oh. Er. Well…I…I’m not as bad off as everyone else. I didn’t know Ben that well…and…” Bella managed to run at the mouth like a complete idiot.

“It does not change the fact that you were forced to see it. As well as forced to face the questioning. Besides, a brief friendship is still a friendship. And…no one deserved to die the way he did.”

Exactly how did Edward know how Ben had died? Well…maybe from his brother? It was still weird, but while it was worded weirdly, he actually sounded genuinely sorry.

“I…thanks,” Bella said, looking down at the paper.

She wasn’t sure what to say more to that. And she noticed with some relief that he was still sitting away from her.

“Anaphase.”

“What?” That jerked her out of her thoughts.

“The cell is currently in anaphase,” Edward said. “Would you like to check?”

While part of her wanted to, but decided against it. She didn’t really want to get that close to him.

“Alright,” Bella said. “Anaphase…because the cells chromosomes have moved away from one another, yet the cell is not separate yet…”

Edward nodded, looking back at the microscope.

“Carlisle said that you thought that you saw someone?”

Well, he was getting to the point. Still, if she was going to throw off suspicion, she wanted Edward to think that she didn’t know anything and didn’t suspect him. There was no reason, other than thinking that he was a creep, not to mention this.

“Maybe. I think it was just a trick of the light, but…well…I was panicked and I thought that I saw someone standing by the dumpster,” Bella said, doing her best to make her voice dismissive, though she couldn’t keep her voice from shaking a little at the memory.

Edward stiffened, looking up at her, something…almost like fear in his eyes.

“Did you see anything else? Could you tell if they were male or female? What did-” he cut himself off with a wince.

A shot of cold fear pulsed through Bella’s veins like ice. That was the wrong answer, wasn’t it? She’d just said she’d seen something, and maybe it was something that Edward hadn’t thought that she’d seen. But…what was there other than a figure that she might have imagined? It could never hold up in court, and she wasn’t credible given that she was panicked.

Edward’s eyes were still closed, and Bella noted that he was somehow a little further away from her than before.

“I apologize for my curiosity, I just…fear that there might be something to any sighting, and wish to know as much as possible. Forks has never had an incident like this in its history.”

“You should be finishing,” Banner called out, over the book that he was reading.

That jolted Bella, and apparently Edward from both of their thoughts, and they were back to work, naming phases and giving reasons. As she wrote, Bella reviewed the conversation in her mind. Had she given any indication that she thought he might be involved? In mystery novels, the one who died was usually the idiot who started to flaunt that they knew something, or left an unintentional hint.

All she’d done was confirmed what he already knew that she’d told the police. So…hopefully, that meant that his questions were just his attempt to see if she knew anymore. But she’d learned something. Edward was interested.

It wasn’t necessarily suspicious, but most of the students weren’t interested as much as horrified. Another thing that caught Bella’s attention was his mention of history.

That should be the first thing that she started to do.

Edward said that something like this hadn’t happened before.

Maybe he was lying.

As she was thinking, Edward learned in a little closer, but only so much that she could hear his low murmur.

“Miss Swan…I know that this is not my place, particularly given my past behavior, but I think that you should avoid going out alone at night at all costs.”

  

* * *

 

 

Fork’s Public Library wasn’t anything like what she was used to. In Phoenix, the library that she’d usually been to had been an enormous building that seemed more like a warehouse than anything else. While it hadn’t been much to look at, the selection had been great. Fork’s Branch Library was a smaller building that had been modern sometime in the 1980’s.

It was squat, brick, and somewhat hidden in the trees that had long overtaken it. It also didn’t seem like it would be big enough to be a book store let alone having older books, or newspapers like she’d been hoping for.

Still, when she walked in, it was cozier than the one that she was used to was, and there were comfortable looking places to sit and read by the windows that hadn’t really been possible in such a big library. Vaguely, Bella realized that she’d been there before. There was something familiar in the bright colors in the children’s section. Charlie must have taken her there as a child, back when he’d been able to see her longer.

When she was really young, her parents had had joint custody of her, but over time it had just been Renee. It wasn’t legal. She knew that now. It was just that she was in school, and Charlie wouldn’t want to disrupt that, and he’d had the summers…

This must have been somewhere that they had gone back then. She could almost see it. He’d probably found a chair and sat as Bella wandered around, looking at books or sat at some children’s show or other…

She’d need to come back here again soon. She knew there wasn’t going to be the selection, but she’d have just deal with it.

It was a good place to look through Fork’s paper too.

Jacob was already waiting for her and waved briefly as Bella stepped over to sit down.

“Hey, thanks for coming,” Bella said.

“Well, I have to admit, I’m a little curious too,” Jacob said. “I didn’t know Ben, but my dad’s being weirdly secretive, and that’s just making me more curious.”

Bella sat down, noting that there weren’t many people there. Just the librarian and a few loiterers. It was pretty early, though it was starting to get dark. Bella knew that there would be a lot of people who would be more nervous now, and even those who were there seemed glad of the light and the company.

“Yeah, I had to talk with Edward today. He…told me not to go out alone at night.”

Jacob looked thoughtful.

“That’s pretty generic advice.”

“Yeah, but it was very particularly towards me. He knows something. Maybe I’m wrong and he’s not the killer, but he knows something.”

It didn't explain a lot, particularly his weird behavior, but still, she knew better than to just...assign blame.

Jacob shrugged.

“Either way, he’s being weird, and there’s no harm in trying to see if something like this happened before. Also, if the killer is from around here, we might be able to notice something. Leah mentioned that most serial killers start with animals before moving on to people.”

That was…unpleasant.

“…How does Leah know that?”

“She’s watches _way_ too much true crime stuff,” Jacob shrugged.

Bella could see that.

“Well, at least that’s somewhere to start.”

Forks actually had an old microform machine, which meant that she and Jacob had to harass the librarian, and ask to use it. Which was a task in and of itself given that she sat there glaring at them as if the fact that they’d decided to research something was a personal insult against her. It took a little playing with the machine, but eventually they were privy to all of the ‘exciting’ events that had happened to Forks since they managed to get a local paper.

And for all that there were a lot of newspapers to get through, there wasn’t much that would interest anyone.

“I’m pretty sure that the winners of a fishing contest aren’t going to help us,” Jacob said, flipping through yet another list of names. “I’m getting the feeling that that’s all that exists here. Fish.”

“There’ lumber too,” Bella said.

“Right. My mistake,” Jacob rolled his eyes. “We’d be better off looking through the tribal newspaper and reading about who hotwired one of the old cars and decided to take it to the cliffs to dive…or just around to pick up a friend’s girlfriend or…”

“Those are very specific, and as the daughter of the policeman, I refuse to listen to any more.”

Jacob laughed a little and ignored a ‘shh’ from someone sitting by the window, reading.

Bella laded up another microform, this one from the nineteen fifties, and then stopped.

“Hey, Jacob, look at this,” Bella hissed.

It wasn’t the front page, that was reserved for more political things, but in the local news, Bella was able to see a new story.

**_Authorities Baffled by Animal Deaths_ **

_Hunter John Grayview was in the forest yesterday when he came across an increasingly familiar sight to many of the hunters in the area.  Several deer were scattered about a small area, apparently drained of blood._

_While finding animals dead is not uncommon when hunting, the frequency as well as the manner of their deaths has been something of a concern to hunters, rangers, hikers and all outdoors enthusiasts in the area._

_Grayview, in an interview stated that “This sort of thing isn’t what animals do. If possible a bear might take down a deer or two, but it’ll be pretty well torn up by the time we see them. While the throat had been torn out, the meat, the parts that the animals would have eaten, was completely untouched, other than by parasites._

_Police state that it is possible that there is someone responsible for the bizarre animal murders, but police state that rumors of cultists or Satanists who have taken up residence in the local woods are likely false._

_“We need to exhaust every potential option,” Officer Jeffery Winters, who has been on the force for three years now, explained. “However, some rumors are more likely than others.”_

_However, police advise that, for now, residents of Forks keep their pets indoors. George Black, one of the elders of the Quileute Tribe, has stated that La Push Reservation will help in any way that it can._

Somewhere behind them, a door opened, and a blast of cold air made Bella sit up a little straighter. She looked behind her to see one of the Cullens. The big one, who looked like he should have been on some team or other, had stepped in, looking around the library in a way that told Bella that he’d likely never been inside the building before and disappeared into the shelves.

Weird.

Jacob hadn’t noticed, he was too busy looking at the paper.

“So…” he said, looking up at Bella. “You think that it was a cult?”

Bella frowned, driving the Cullens out of her mind and looking back at the paper.

“I don’t know,” she said. “We should probably see if we can find more. But…it’s weird. From what I heard…Ben…he was drained of blood too.”

Was it possible?

Why?

“Looks like Grandpa was involved at the time too…” Jacob said thoughtfully. “He died three years ago, so we can’t ask him much. And Gran’s at a home and doesn’t always remember her name let alone something like this.”

“But it’s weird that there were rumors of people living in the woods at this time. Let’s see if there’s any more…”

There wasn’t. The next few papers covered the usual stories, other than a few editorials about hunting and how dangerous it might be in the woods. Still, other than clear rumors and questions, it looked like whatever happened either cleared up or was explained away.

“If something happened in the fifties, whoever did this would be old by now,” Bella muttered.

So, it couldn't be Edward, could it? At least, this one couldn't have been him.

“Yeah,” Jacob said. “I think we need to keep digging. The police aren’t going to go this far back, and even if they did, they might not see anything. Besides, the Cullens have been banned from tribal land for years…”

“You think it’s a family thing?” Bella asked.

Mental illness wasn’t always hereditary. From what she remembered from various books, it depended. Some were, some weren’t, some were closer to being born with a predisposition. Then again, Alice was…well… insane wasn’t the right word. But she wasn’t, for lack of a better work, typical. Could there be something in that family?

If they’d been there, in Forks…

What if they’d been the reason that people were whispering about Satanists out in the words?

There wasn’t any proof though. Nothing but some weird animal deaths, and other than suspicions, even Bella had to admit that she was reaching for some kind of connection. But there had to be something. Jacob was right. If the family was banned from tribal lands, they must have encountered one another before. Even though the Cullens had apparently moved to Forks only a year ago, there must be some history…

“Good evening, library patrons,” the librarian’s clear, sharp voice made Bella jump. “We will be closing in fifteen minutes. If you have items that need to be checked out or are using our technology, this is the time to finish what you are doing, check out or sign out. Have a great night.”

“Crap, seriously, it’s seven already?” Jacob muttered.

Seven…wow the places around here closed early.

Then again, small town, Bella reminded herself.

“You think we can start again tomorrow?” she asked.

“Probably. Dad’s going to be at a tribe meeting, and he’d probably rather me hang out with you than Embry or Quil. Besides, he thinks I’m working on a school project.”

Bella gave him a dirty look.

“Oh, come on, it’s not like he’d have let me come if I’d told him that I was trying to look up the Cullens. For all that he hates their guts, he really doesn’t want me or anyone else knowing too much about why. I asked again, but he just told me to mind my own business. But anyways, yeah, he’s good with my hanging out with you. I think it’s glad that I’ve finally got a friend who he thinks is a good influence or something.”

Bella blinked at the word friend.

Right…

They were friends, weren’t they? Jacob had done his best to make her feel at home, to introduce him into his circle of friends…and they’d been alright with it. She was going to need to get used to that. She had friends. 

“Well, do you have a ride back?”

“Yeah, bummed one off of Quil. I think he’s still at the diner with Lauren. I swear, he’s disgusting. If I get a girlfriend, I really hope I’m more…normal.”

Bella laughed a little as they packed things up.

“You go ahead and meet Quil. I’ll sign out and return everything. It’s my card anyways,” she said.

 "Alright. Night, Bella!” he called as he headed out, leaving Bella alone.

Bella watched as he went, but finally turned back to everything. There wasn’t much. Just bringing stuff back and asking if she could get it again tomorrow. Thankfully, the woman didn’t seem to think that there was anything too odd about someone wanting to go through old newspapers.

“Is Mary Franklin still doing that same local history assignment?” she asked when Bella turned things in. “I swear; I don’t think she’s changed anything since when I was taking her classes. Good luck, she’s so familiar with everything that she grades those things terribly. Prey for lazy classmates and a curb.”

Bella smiled a little. It was a better lie than she would have been able to tell.

“Thanks,” she said. “We’ll be back tomorrow, is that alright?”

The librarian shrugged. “it’s fine. It’s not like people have been all that interested in these other than when some project comes around. It’s nice to see people learning about the town’s history.”

Bella nodded again, not sure what else to say and scooted towards the doors.

Outside, it was surprisingly dark.  Bella still wasn’t used to that. In Phoenix it had been dark, but there had been plenty of street lights and light pollution. Here…well…she could see that stars easily. At least the ones that weren’t being cut from her view by the ever present trees that seemed to loom around her at the moment.

That was still the biggest change for her. Everything she was getting used to, even the fact that things liked to be cloudy a lot. The feeling of being hemmed in, that was something that was going to take time to get used to

Particularly after what had happened.

Bella’s car was pretty close to the entrance, by a small bunch of pine trees that had dumped their load of snow into the bed of her truck, but as she walked towards it, Bella stopped. Somehow, something felt…strange. It was quiet, extremely so. While there had been a few patrons in the library, it seemed that no one had left with her.

She didn’t know why that bothered her, but it did. Worse, Edward Cullen’s words were coming back to her.

Was that a threat…or a warning?

Something moved in the pines near her car and for an instant-

“Good evening, Miss Swan,” the smooth, somewhat stuffy voice of Edward Cullen wasn’t a relief.

Particularly as he was stepping out the door of a Volvo that she just realized was parked a little way further down from her car. For a moment, Edward Cullen paused, glancing at the bushes, but then he was walking towards her, and Bella was dealing with the fact that moving towards her car meant moving towards him.

Edward stopped a decent distance away, as if sensing Bella’s nervousness.

“Hi,” Bella said, “I er…” Was researching to see if your creepy family as some mental illness that might be connected to these murders. “…was doing some research for school.”

Edward nodded. “Emmett is doing a report on Faulkner’s _As I Lay Dying,_ ” he said, shrugging. “I came to pick him up.”

Oh, so it was normal.

“He doesn’t have a car?” Bella asked, deciding that keeping the conversation going was better than floundering around awkwardly.

“…Not any longer,” Edward said delicately. “Not since he used his last car in an…impromptu off-road trip…”

“It was a Jeep!” a new voice called. “How was I supposed to know that it wasn’t going to be able to handle it!”

The speaker was the mountain of a man who had been there before. Like Edward and the other Cullens, he had that same flawless face and dull colored eyes that blended so much into the shadows that she couldn’t tell what color they were. His brown hair was a good deal shorter than the others, and honestly Bella was a little surprised that she hadn’t seen him at football practice.

He grinned at the sight of her.

“Hey, you got _As I Lay Dying_ too, right? Terrible isn’t it?”

Honestly, Bella liked the book, but she wasn’t going to argue with him.

“It…takes getting used to.”

Emmett laughed, an honest, happy sound that somehow seemed strange in this tense little gathering. Bella found herself relaxing a bit.

“You sound just like Ed,” he said. “Particularly when he’s being disapproving but doesn’t want to offend you.”

Edward gave him a dark look.

“He’s still embarrassed about the whole ‘side effects include losing your mind’ thing,” Emmett continued, a big grin on his face.

“Emmett…” Edward said, his voice in an almost whisper. “Do you think that Miss Swan would be interested in knowing some of the facts that I know about you. Beginning from when you were three years old?”

For a moment, Emmett looked surprised, but then he just started laughing. For a moment, Edward just looked flustered, but then he cracked a small smile.

“Anyways, it’s been fun, but Esme’s going to be wondering where we are. And probably about ready to throw something at me for keeping you,” Emmett said, he smiled a waved a little. “See you at school.

And they were heading back, leaving Bella standing alone for a moment before she could make her way to the car.

Sitting down, she locked the doors and started it up. Emmett seemed like the most normal of the Cullens. Was that an act? Or was there something else. Dead animals in the woods. A possible cult. A family that took vacations all the time, and were strangely pale. Killings. 

She had to learn more.

 

* * *

 

“This is so creepy,” Emmett said, flopping into the seat with a loud thud. “I know I suggested it, but I feel like such a jerk.”

He’d been incredibly bored as well. The only thing that he’d had was the book that he should have already read for class and hated on principle. _As I Lay Dying_ was one of those books that he considered obnoxious, pretentious and really just the author patting themselves on the back for how much smarter they were than the ordinary slobs that they were going to preach to. There had been little to alleviate his conscience.

“Maybe we could…” Emmett tried to find the words.

“Tell her that we are trying to keep her from being devoured by a tracker who, having picked up her scent, is now stalking her relentlessly to the point of hiding in her bushes. I am surprised he has not attempted to get in through her window.”

Emmett shivered a little.

“Yeah, but now we look like the creepers,” he complained. “What did she think anyways. About our coming up when she was studying?”

“I don’t know.”

Emmett, and his thoughts, were silent for a moment as he digested that.

“What?” he whispered.

“I cannot read her thoughts,” Edward said. “It is… It is like I was alive. I can guess at them. I can guess that she was terrified to see me and that you brought her some relief, but I cannot know…”

He wasn’t sure if the emotion that bubbled up was curiosity or even annoyance that there was someone that he couldn’t read. Neither were particularly good. He hoped it was something else.

“I have never had anyone, let alone a human-”

“Ed, don’t talk like that,” Emmett said sharply.

Worry, and concern, were Emmett’s first thoughts. It was something that they all fought with. It was easy, when you were undead with powers to see yourself as separate from what they had come from, and they all made sure to police themselves and one another when those thoughts, or those slipped occurred.

Edward closed his eyes. Usually, when this happened, he’d focus on the thoughts of the person, remind themselves that they were people, more so than he was, with hopes, dreams, lives, and loved ones. But Bella was a wall to him.

So, he focused on his memories of her father.

Charlie Swan, who while speaking to the students about the dangers of drugs had been telling himself that all of this was worth it if, during his times as speaker throughout his life, one person listened to him and didn’t make that decision. The officer who had come to dinner on a few nights, and everyone had spent an uncomfortable time eating, but who had spent his time quietly admiring their home. The father who, during the time of Miss Swan’s coming, had his thoughts buzzing about how he would make her comfortable and how happy he was that finally _finally_ he might have the chance to really know his daughter.

Edward was ashamed of himself.

“I apologize,” Edward said. “I…”

“It happens to all of us. That’s what the rest are here for, but…seriously, not a sound…er…thought?”

“Nothing…I cannot anticipate her movements.”

“Ah…hence the…” he gestured vaguely, but the word ‘stalking’ was clear in his mind.

“We are not stalking her. That implies that we have an…untoward interest in her. We cannot tell her the truth. She already has every reason to assume the worst of me. We are merely…deterring her actual stalker. I do not want the others to know though…they are…nervous enough already. Particularly Rosalie.”

“Yeah, Rose already sort of wants to jump ship and see if we can lure this bozo after us, since what the Volturi doesn’t know…can’t make them mad.”

Edward nodded.

“Once there’s a problem, I’m going to tell Rose,” Emmett said.

Edward nodded again, glancing back at where he’d heard the faint, bloodthirsty thoughts of a killer. Fighting against the intrusive worry that, regardless of if the others knew about Miss Swan, the issue might already be more than he understood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it for now. 
> 
> Additional Notes:
> 
> Forks History: Hunters tend to notice weird animal deaths, and yes there's a reason for so many at the time.


End file.
